Sample records for exxon oil spill

The effectiveness of bioremediation for oilspills has been difficult to establish on dynamic, heterogeneous marine shorelines. A new interpretative technique used following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska shows that fertilizer applications significantly increased rates of oil biodegradation. Biodegradation rates depended mainly on the concentration of nitrogen within the shoreline, the oil loading, and the extent to which natural biodegradation had already taken place. The results suggest ways to improve the effectiveness of bioremediation measures in the future.

In 2001 and 2003, geospatial surveys of lingering oil were conducted in Prince William Sound (PWS) resulting in a prediction of significant acreage being contaminated with substantial subsurface oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS). In 2007, other researchers d...

This paper introduces a conceptual framework for understanding and responding to the currently unfolding social and psychological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. Drawing from the concept of corrosive communities and its relationship to theories of conservation of resources, cognitive activation, and risk and resilience, the conceptual model identifies three levels or tiers of impacts: biopsychosocial impacts that are direct consequences of the contamination of the physical environment; interpersonal impacts that are direct consequences of the biopsychosocial impacts; and intrapersonal or psychological impacts that are consequences of both the biopsychosocial and the interpersonal impacts. The model is then evaluated in light of research conducted in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oilspill as well as studies of other manmade disasters, and offers a set of testable hypotheses that predict likely impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. The conceptual framework may be used to identify strategies to develop community resilience and target specific services to prevent and mitigate these adverse effects.

Technological accidents such as the Exxon Valdez oilspill in 1989 create man-made disaster situations that threaten community survival and the well-being and quality of life of community residents. This paper focuses on the social and psychological impact of the 1989 oilspill on Cordova, an isolated Alaskan community with high economic…

Oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill has persisted along shorelines of Prince William Sound, Alaska, for more than two decades as both surface and subsurface oil residues. To better understand the distribution of persistent subsurface oil and assess the potential need for further restoration, a thorough and quantitative understanding of the geomorphic factors controlling the presence or absence of subsurface oil is required. Data on oiling and geomorphic features were collected at 198 sites in Prince William Sound to identify and quantify the relationships among these geomorphic factors and the presence and absence of persistent subsurface oil. Geomorphic factors associated with the presence of subsurface oil were initial oil exposure, substrate permeability, topographic slope, low exposure to waves, armoring on gravel beaches, tombolos, natural breakwaters, and rubble accumulations. Geomorphic factors associated with the absence of subsurface oil were impermeable bedrock; platforms with thin sediment veneer; fine-grained, well-sorted gravel beaches with no armor; and low-permeability, raised bay-bottom beaches. Relationships were found between the geomorphic and physical site characteristics and the likelihood of encountering persistent subsurface oiling at those sites. There is quantitative evidence of more complex interactions between the overall wave energy incident at a site and the presence of fine-scale geomorphic features that may have provided smaller, local wave energy sheltering of oil. Similarly, these data provide evidence for interactions between the shoreline slope and the presence of angular rubble, with decreased likelihood for encountering subsurface oil at steeply sloped sites except at high-angle sheltered rubble shoreline locations. These results reinforce the idea that the interactions of beach permeability, stability, and site-specific wave exposure are key drivers for subsurface oil persistence in exposed and intermittently exposed mixed

The authors quantified hepatic hydrocarbon-inducible cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) expression, as ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity, in wintering harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) captured in Prince William Sound, Alaska (USA), during 2011, 2013, and 2014 (22-25 yr following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill). Average EROD activity was compared between birds from areas oiled by the spill and those from nearby unoiled areas. The present study replicated studies conducted from 1998 to 2009 demonstrating that harlequin ducks using areas oiled in 1989 had elevated EROD activity, indicative of oil exposure, up to 2 decades post spill. In the present study, it was found that average EROD activity during March 2011 was significantly higher in wintering harlequin ducks captured in oiled areas relative to unoiled areas, which the authors interpret to indicate that harlequin ducks continued to be exposed to residual Exxon Valdez oil up to 22 yr after the original spill. However, the 2011 results also indicated reductions in exposure relative to previous years. Average EROD activity in birds from oiled areas was approximately 2 times that in birds from unoiled areas in 2011, compared with observations from 2005 to 2009, in which EROD activity was 3 to 5 times higher in oiled areas. It was also found that average EROD activity during March 2013 and March 2014 was not elevated in wintering harlequin ducks from oiled areas. The authors interpret these findings to indicate that exposure of harlequin ducks to residual Exxon Valdez oil abated within 24 yr after the original spill. The present study finalizes a timeline of exposure, extending over 2 decades, for a bird species thought to be particularly vulnerable to oil contamination in marine environments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;9999:1-7. Published 2016 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.

This study used field data and a suite of geospatial models to identify areas where subsurface oil is likely to still be present on the shorelines of Prince William Sound (PWS) and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) affected by the Exxon Valdez oilspill, as well as the factors related to continued presence of such oil. The goal was to identify factors and accompanying models that could serve as screening tools to prioritize shorelines for different remediation methods. The models were based on data collected at 314 shoreline segments surveyed between 2001 and 2007. These field data allowed us to identify a number of geomorphologic and hydrologic factors that have contributed to the persistence of subsurface oil within PWS and GOA two decades after the spill. Because synoptic data layers for describing each of these factors at all locations were not available, the models developed used existing data sets as surrogates to represent these factors, such as distance to a stream mouth or shoreline convexity. While the linkages between the data used and the physical phenomena that drive persistence are not clearly understood in all cases, the performance of these models was remarkably good. The models simultaneously evaluate all identified variables to predict the presence of different types of subsurface oiling in a rigorous, unbiased manner. The refined model results suggest there are a limited but significant number of as-yet unsurveyed locations in the study area that are likely to contain subsurface oil. Furthermore, the model results may be used to quantitatively prioritize shoreline for investigation with known uncertainty.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the relationship between exposure to the Exxon Valdez oilspill and subsequent cleanup efforts and the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depressive symptoms in 13 Alaska communities. METHOD: A community survey of 599 men and women was conducted approximately 1 year after the spill occurred. Questions from the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule were used to assess symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale was used to assess levels of depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The post-spill (i.e., 1-year) prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder and PTSD for the study communities with all degrees of exposure was 20.2% and 9.4%, respectively. The prevalence of respondents with CES-D Scale scores above 16 and 18 was 16.6% and 14.2%, respectively. When compared with the unexposed group, members of the high-exposure group were 3.6 times as likely to have generalized anxiety disorder, 2.9 times as likely to have PTSD, 1.8 times as likely to have a CES-D Scale score of 16 and above, and 2.1 times as likely to have a CES-D Scale score of 18 and above. Women exposed to this event were particularly vulnerable to these conditions, and Alaska Natives were particularly vulnerable to depressive symptoms after the oilspill. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the oilspill's impact on the psychosocial environment was as significant as its impact on the physical environment. The Exxon Valdez experience suggests a number of implications for the mental health needs of disaster victims, particularly in primary care settings.

... by settlement of civil claims brought against Exxon Companies by the State of Alaska and the United... seek food in sediments where the oil persists and remains a concern and a perception of contamination... lingering oil has also impacted the public's perception of the spill area as the pristine environment that...

The 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill contaminated around 800 kilometers of shoreline in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Despite extensive cleanup efforts and nearly 20 years of natural weathering, subsurface oil residues persist in patches in some beaches. The hydrogeological mechanism causing the oil persistence was not fully understood due to the complex surface and groundwater interactions in the intertidal zone including tides, inland freshwater recharge, sediment heterogeneity, seawater density-effect and beach landforms. Based on field data and numerical simulations, we show that the persistence of oil is due to the two-layered structure (a high-permeability surface layer underlain by a low-permeability layer) in conjunction with a small freshwater recharge. The surface layer probably provided the oil a temporary storage for its slow, continuous filling of the lower layer whenever the water table dropped below the interface of the two layers due to small freshwater recharge from inland. The oil did not seem to have penetrated the lower layer at locations where the freshwater recharge was large. The persistence seems to be due to the lack of oxygen resulting from the tidal hydraulics in the two-layered beaches. This was not considered in prior studies dealing with the spill. This study has implications on locating and bioremediating spilledoil on tidal gravel beaches widely distributed around the world, especially in mid- and high-latitude regions.

In this article we consider what we have learned from the Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS) in terms of when bioremediation should be considered and what it can accomplish. We present data on the state of oiling of Prince William Sound shorelines 18 years after the spill, including the concentration and composition of subsurface oil residues (SSOR) sampled by systematic shoreline surveys conducted between 2002 and 2007. Over this period, 346 sediment samples were analysed by GC-MS and extents of hydrocarbon depletion were quantified. In 2007 alone, 744 sediment samples were collected and extracted, and 222 were analysed. Most sediment samples from sites that were heavily oiled by the spill and physically cleaned and bioremediated between 1989 and 1991 show no remaining SSOR. Where SSOR does remain, it is for the most part highly weathered, with 82% of 2007 samples indicating depletion of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (Total PAH) of >70% relative to EVOS oil. This SSOR is sequestered in patchy deposits under boulder/cobble armour, generally in the mid-to-upper intertidal zone. The relatively high nutrient concentrations measured at these sites, the patchy distribution and the weathering state of the SSOR suggest that it is in a form and location where bioremediation likely would be ineffective at increasing the rate of hydrocarbon removal.

Oilspilled from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989 (refs 1, 2) persists in the subsurface of gravel beaches in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The contamination includes considerable amounts of chemicals that are harmful to the local fauna. However, remediation of the beaches was stopped in 1992, because it was assumed that the disappearance rate of oil was large enough to ensure a complete removal of oil within a few years. Here we present field data and numerical simulations of a two-layered beach with a small freshwater recharge in the contaminated area, where a high-permeability upper layer is underlain by a low-permeability lower layer. We find that the upper layer temporarily stored the oil, while it slowly and continuously filled the lower layer wherever the water table dropped below the interface of the two layers, as a result of low freshwater recharge from the land. Once the oil entered the lower layer, it became entrapped by capillary forces and persisted there in nearly anoxic conditions that are a result of the tidal hydraulics in the two-layered beaches. We suggest that similar dynamics could operate on tidal gravel beaches around the world, which are particularly common in mid- and high-latitude regions, with implications for locating spilledoil and for its biological remediation.

Six samples of severely biodegraded oil residues were selected from a survey of 91 oil residues and tars in the area of Prince William Sound, Alaska. These samples were collected over a period from 1990 to 1994 following the 1989 spill of North Slope crude oil from the supertanker Exxon Valdez (EV). The six samples were among 28 that were shown to have been residues of the EV spill by carbon isotopes and biomarkers. These samples had correlating trends in the depletion of their C{sub 27} steranes, diasteranes and monoaromatic steroids compared with the sum of C{sub 27} + C{sub 28} + C{sub 29} homologues of these steroids, respectively. They also showed relative depletion of C{sub 26} triaromatic steroids compared with the C{sub 27} + C{sub 28} homologues. Losses of diasteranes, monoaromatic and triaromatic steroids prior to extensive depletion of the entire suite of steranes and hopanes have not been observed in reservoired biodegraded oils or seep oils, but have been observed in the analysis of land-farmed refinery wastes. These data suggest an operative mechanism during bioremediation at the surface, in which the sterane side-chain structure is the primary factor influencing relative steroid biodegradation rates, rather than the structure of the steroid ring system.

Oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill persists in some of the Prince William Sound (Alaska) beaches and continues to be a potential threat to the fauna. This paper reports a field investigation during the summer of 2008 of groundwater flow and solute transport in a tidal gravel beach in Smith Island, Prince William Sound. The beach contains oil on one side, the left side (facing landward). Field measurements of water table, salinity, and tracer (lithium) concentration were obtained for an approximate duration of 64 h for two transects, the oiled transect and a clean transect (the right transect). It was found that the hydraulic conductivity and the fresh groundwater recharge into the two transects were similar. It was also found that the beach slope of the mid to high tidal zone along the oiled (left) transect was ~7.4% which is considerably smaller than that of the clean (right) transect (~11.8%). This suggests a higher flushing/replenishing of the right transect with nutrients and/or oxygen, which would have enhanced biodegradation of oil on the right transect if that oil was not washed by waves. We also found that the degree of oiling at each location was inversely dependent on the armoring of the beach surface with clasts and boulders. The applied tracer concentration at the left transect was less than 2% of the source or close to the background level at all locations except a seaward well closest to the applied location, indicating that the tracer applied was diluted or washed out from the beach during the application. Thus, in situations where oil biodegradation is limited by the availability of nutrients and/or dissolved oxygen, applying the chemicals on the beach surface would most likely not enhance oil biodegradation as the applied chemicals would be greatly diluted prior to reaching the oil. Thus, deep injection of nutrients and/or dissolved oxygen is probably the only option for enhancing oil biodegradation.

National Park Service, Department of the Interior — The fall data represents a summary of beached oil concentration following the completion of all major spill treatment in 1989. Survey dates were from September 11,...

To better understand the distribution of remaining lingering subsurface oil residues from the Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS) along the shorelines of Prince William Sound (PWS), AK, we revised previous modeling efforts to allow spatially explicit predictions of the distribution of subsurface oil. We used a set of pooled field data and predictor variables stored as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data to generate calibrated boosted tree models predicting the encounter probability of different categories of subsurface oil. The models demonstrated excellent predictive performance as evaluated by cross-validated performance statistics. While the average encounter probabilities at most shoreline locations are low across western PWS, clusters of shoreline locations with elevated encounter probabilities remain in the northern parts of the PWS, as well as more isolated locations. These results can be applied to estimate the location and amount of remaining oil, evaluate potential ongoing impacts, and guide remediation. This is the first application of quantitative machine-learning based modeling techniques in estimating the likelihood of ongoing, long-term shoreline oil persistence after a major oilspill.

Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) were adversely affected by the Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS) in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, and some have suggested effects continue two decades later. We present an ecological risk assessment evaluating quantitatively whether PWS seaducks continue to be at-risk from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in residual Exxon Valdez oil. Potential pathways for PAH exposures are identified for initially oiled and never-oiled reference sites. Some potential pathways are implausible (e.g., a seaduck excavating subsurface oil residues), whereas other pathways warrant quantification. We used data on PAH concentrations in PWS prey species, sediments, and seawater collected during 2001–2008 to develop a stochastic individual-based model projecting assimilated doses to seaducks. We simulated exposures to 500,000 individuals in each of eight age/gender classes, capturing the variability within a population of seaducks living in PWS. Doses to the maximum-exposed individuals are ∼400–4,000 times lower than chronic toxicity reference values established using USEPA protocols for seaducks. These exposures are so low that no individual-level effects are plausible, even within a simulated population that is orders-of-magnitude larger than exists in PWS. We conclude that toxicological risks to PWS seaducks from residual Exxon Valdez oil two decades later are essentially non-existent. PMID:23723680

Exposure to contaminants other than petroleum hydrocarbons could confound interpretation of Exxon Valdez oilspill effects on biota at Prince William Sound, Alaska. Hence, we investigated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in blood of sea otters and harlequin ducks sampled during 1998. PCB concentrations characterized by lower chlorinated congeners were highest in sea otters from the unoiled area, whereas concentrations were similar among harlequin ducks from the oiled and unoiled area. Blood enzymes often elevated by xenobiotics were not related to PCB concentrations in sea otters. Only sea otters from the unoiled area had estimated risk from PCBs, and PCB composition or concentrations did not correspond to reported lower measures of population performance in sea otters or harlequin ducks from the oiled area. PCBs probably did not influence limited sea otter or harlequin duck recovery in the oiled area a decade after the spill.

The Exxon Valdez oilspill occurred more than two decades ago, and the Prince William Sound ecosystem has essentially recovered. Nevertheless, discussion continues on whether or not localized effects persist on sea otters (Enhydra lutris) at northern Knight Island (NKI) and, if so, what are the associated attributable risks. A recent study estimated new rates of sea otter encounters with subsurface oil residues (SSOR) from the oilspill. We previously demonstrated that a potential pathway existed for exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and conducted a quantitative ecological risk assessment using an individual-based model that simulated this and other plausible exposure pathways. Here we quantitatively update the potential for this exposure pathway to constitute an ongoing risk to sea otters using the new estimates of SSOR encounters. Our conservative model predicted that the assimilated doses of PAHs to the 1-in-1000th most-exposed sea otters would remain 1–2 orders of magnitude below the chronic effects thresholds. We re-examine the baseline estimates, post-spill surveys, recovery status, and attributable risks for this subpopulation. We conclude that the new estimated frequencies of encountering SSOR do not constitute a plausible risk for sea otters at NKI and these sea otters have fully recovered from the oilspill. PMID:24587690

To determine the distribution of oil in subtidal sediments after the Exxon Valdez oilspill we sampled sediments at six depths (0, 3, 6, 20, 40 and 100 m) at 53 locations in Prince William Sound and the northern Gulf of Alaska from 1989 to 1991. Results are based on 1278 sediment samples analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In 1989, the oil concentration was greatest in the Sound at 0 m. Outside the Sound, Exxon Valdez oil occurred at Chugach Bay, Hallo Bay, Katmai Bay, and Windy Bay in 1989. Hydrocarbons often matched Exxon Valdez oil less closely, oil was more patchily distributed, and the oil concentration decreased in sediments after 1989.

Hydrocarbon-inducible cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) expression was measured, as ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity, in livers of wintering harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) captured in areas of Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, oiled by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and in birds from nearby unoiled areas, during 2005 to 2009 (up to 20 years following the spill). The present work repeated studies conducted in 1998 that demonstrated that in harlequin ducks using areas that received Exxon Valdez oil, EROD activity was elevated nearly a decade after the spill. The present findings strongly supported the conclusion that average levels of hepatic EROD activity were higher in ducks from oiled areas than those from unoiled areas during 2005 to 2009. This result was consistent across four sampling periods; furthermore, results generated from two independent laboratories using paired liver samples from one of the sampling periods were similar. The EROD activity did not vary in relation to age, sex, or body mass of individuals, nor did it vary strongly by season in birds collected early and late in the winter of 2006 to 2007, indicating that these factors did not confound inferences about observed differences between oiled and unoiled areas. We interpret these results to indicate that harlequin ducks continued to be exposed to residual Exxon Valdez oil up to 20 years after the original spill. This adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that oilspills have the potential to affect wildlife for much longer time frames than previously assumed.

We examined post-spill trends (1989-1998) of marine bird populations in Prince William Sound (PWS) following the Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS) to evaluate recovery of injured taxa. Two criteria were employed. First, we examined population trends of injured taxa only in the oiled area of PWS using regression models. Second, we examined population trends of injured taxa in the oiled area relative to the unoiled area using homogeneity of the slopes tests. We considered a population recovering if there was a positive trend using either criteria. We considered a population not recovering if there was no trend using either criteria or a negative trend in the oiled area. A significant negative trend in the oiled area relative to the unoiled area was considered a continuing and increasing effect. Most taxa for which injury was previously demonstrated were not recovering and some taxa showed evidence of increasing effects nine years after the oilspill. Four taxa (loons Gavia spp, Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus, Bufflehead Bucephala spp, and North-western Crow Corvus caurinus) showed weak to very weak evidence of recovery. None of these taxa showed positive trends in both winter and summer. Nine taxa (grebes Podiceps spp, cormorants Phalacrocorax spp, Black Oystercatcher Haematopus bachmani, Mew Gull Larus canus, Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens, terns Sterna spp, murres Uria spp, Pigeon Guillemot Cepphus columba, and murrelets Brachyramphus spp) showed no evidence of recovery during summer or winter. Four taxa (scoters Melanitta spp, mergansers Mergus spp, goldeneyes Bucephala spp, and Black-legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla) showed evidence of continuing, increasing effects. We showed evidence of slow recovery, lack of recovery, and divergent population trends in many taxa which utilise shoreline and nearshore habitats where oil is likely to persist. Potential lingering spill effects and natural variability appear to be acting in concert in delaying

Following the Exxon Valdez oilspill, 347 oiled sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were treated in rehabilitation centers. Of these, 116 died, 94 within 10 days of presentation. Clinical records of 21 otters dying during the first 10 days of rehabilitation were reviewed to define the laboratory abnormalities and clinical syndromes associated with these unexpected deaths. The most common terminal syndrome was shock characterized by hypothermia, lethargy, and often hemorrhagic diarrhea. In heavily and moderately oiled otters, shock developed within 48 hours of initial presentation, whereas in lightly oiled otters shock generally occurred during the second week of captivity. Accompanying laboratory abnormalities included leukopenia with increased numbers of immature neutrophils (degenerative left shift), lymphopenia, anemia, azotemia (primarily prerenal), hyperkalemia, hypoproteinemia/hypoalbuminemia, elevations of serum transaminases, and hypoglycemia. Shock associated with hemorrhagic diarrhea probably occurred either as a direct primary effect of oiling or as an indirect effect secondary to confinement and handling in the rehabilitation centers. Lightly oiled otters were less likely to die from shock than were heavily oiled otters (22% vs. 72%, respectively). Heavily oiled otters developed shock more rapidly and had greater numbers of laboratory abnormalities, suggesting that exposure to oil was an important contributing factor.

Ecological risk assessments need to advance beyond evaluating risks to individuals that are largely based on toxicity studies conducted on a few species under laboratory conditions, to assessing population-level risks to the environment, including considerations of variability and uncertainty. Two individual-based models (IBMs), recently developed to assess current risks to sea otters and seaducks in Prince William Sound more than 2 decades after the Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS), are used to...

We assessed whether sea otters and harlequin ducks in an area of western Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA (PWS), oiled by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS), are exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from oil residues 20 years after the spill. Spilledoil has persisted in PWS for two decades as surface oil residues (SOR) and subsurface oil residues (SSOR) on the shore. The rare SOR are located primarily on the upper shore as inert, nonhazardous asphaltic deposits, and SSOR are confined to widely scattered locations as small patches under a boulder/cobble veneer, primarily on the middle and upper shore, in forms and locations that preclude physical contact by wildlife and diminish bioavailability. Sea otters and harlequin ducks consume benthic invertebrates that they collect by diving to the bottom in the intertidal and subtidal zones. Sea otters also dig intertidal and subtidal pits in search of clams. The three plausible exposure pathways are through the water, in oil-contaminated prey, or by direct contact with SSOR during foraging. Concentrations of PAH in near-shore water off oiled shores in 2002 to 2005 were at background levels (<0.05 ng/L). Median concentrations of PAH in five intertidal prey species on oiled shores in 2002 to 2008 range from 4.0 to 34 ng/g dry weight, indistinguishable from background concentrations. Subsurface oil residues are restricted to locations on the shore and substrate types, where large clams do not occur and where sea otters do not dig foraging pits. Therefore, that sea otters and harlequin ducks continue to be exposed to environmentally significant amounts of PAH from EVOS 20 years after the spill is not plausible.

Full Text Available Using a panel of genes stimulated by oil exposure in a laboratory study, we evaluated gene transcription in blood leukocytes sampled from sea otters captured from 2006–2012 in western Prince William Sound (WPWS, Alaska, 17–23 years after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS. We compared WPWS sea otters to reference populations (not affected by the EVOS from the Alaska Peninsula (2009, Katmai National Park and Preserve (2009, Clam Lagoon at Adak Island (2012, Kodiak Island (2005 and captive sea otters in aquaria. Statistically, sea otter gene transcript profiles separated into three distinct clusters: Cluster 1, Kodiak and WPWS 2006–2008 (higher relative transcription; Cluster 2, Clam Lagoon and WPWS 2010–2012 (lower relative transcription; and Cluster 3, Alaska Peninsula, Katmai and captive sea otters (intermediate relative transcription. The lower transcription of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR, an established biomarker for hydrocarbon exposure, in WPWS 2010–2012 compared to earlier samples from WPWS is consistent with declining hydrocarbon exposure, but the pattern of overall low levels of transcription seen in WPWS 2010–2012 could be related to other factors, such as food limitation, pathogens or injury, and may indicate an inability to mount effective responses to stressors. Decreased transcriptional response across the entire gene panel precludes the evaluation of whether or not individual sea otters show signs of exposure to lingering oil. However, related studies on sea otter demographics indicate that by 2012, the sea otter population in WPWS had recovered, which indicates diminishing oil exposure.

Using a panel of genes stimulated by oil exposure in a laboratory study, we evaluated gene transcription in blood leukocytes sampled from sea otters captured from 2006–2012 in western Prince William Sound (WPWS), Alaska, 17–23 years after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS). We compared WPWS sea otters to reference populations (not affected by the EVOS) from the Alaska Peninsula (2009), Katmai National Park and Preserve (2009), Clam Lagoon at Adak Island (2012), Kodiak Island (2005) and captive sea otters in aquaria. Statistically, sea otter gene transcript profiles separated into three distinct clusters: Cluster 1, Kodiak and WPWS 2006–2008 (higher relative transcription); Cluster 2, Clam Lagoon and WPWS 2010–2012 (lower relative transcription); and Cluster 3, Alaska Peninsula, Katmai and captive sea otters (intermediate relative transcription). The lower transcription of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), an established biomarker for hydrocarbon exposure, in WPWS 2010–2012 compared to earlier samples from WPWS is consistent with declining hydrocarbon exposure, but the pattern of overall low levels of transcription seen in WPWS 2010–2012 could be related to other factors, such as food limitation, pathogens or injury, and may indicate an inability to mount effective responses to stressors. Decreased transcriptional response across the entire gene panel precludes the evaluation of whether or not individual sea otters show signs of exposure to lingering oil. However, related studies on sea otter demographics indicate that by 2012, the sea otter population in WPWS had recovered, which indicates diminishing oil exposure.

Oilspills often happen because of accidents, when people make mistakes or equipment breaks down. Other causes include natural disasters or deliberate acts. Oilspills have major environmental and economic effects. Oil ...

Sea otters in western Prince William Sound (WPWS) and elsewhere in the Gulf of Alaska suffered widespread mortality as a result of oiling following the 1989 T/V Exxon Valdez oilspill. Following the spill, extensive efforts have been directed toward identifying and understanding long-term consequences of the spill and the process of recovery. We conducted annual aerial surveys of sea otter abundance from 1993 to 2009 (except for 2001 and 2006) in WPWS. We observed an increasing trend in population abundance at the scale of WPWS through 2000 at an average annual rate of 4 percent: however, at northern Knight Island where oiling was heaviest and sea otter mortality highest, no increase in abundance was evident by 2000. We continued to see significant increase in abundance at the scale of WPWS between 2001 and 2009, with an average annual rate of increase from 1993 to 2009 of 2.6 percent. We estimated the 2009 population size of WPWS to be 3,958 animals (standard error=653), nearly 2,000 animals more than the first post-spill estimate in 1993. Surveys since 2003 also have identified a significant increasing trend at the heavily oiled site in northern Knight Island, averaging about 25 percent annually and resulting in a 2009 estimated population size of 116 animals (standard error=19). Although the 2009 estimate for northern Knight Island remains about 30 percent less than the pre-spill estimate of 165 animals, we interpret this trend as strong evidence of a trajectory toward recovery of spill-affected sea otter populations in WPWS.

We examined livers and liver biopsies collected from captured sea otters in WPWS, 2001–2008, to determine whether indicators of liver health correlated with history of oil contamination from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill. Sea otters captured in oiled areas had a significantly higher proportion of livers with gross pathological change, based on visual inspection at the time of capture, than those from unoiled areas. Of the 10 histopathology variables scored on liver biopsies, only two (vacuolar change and pigment) differed between animals from oiled and unoiled areas, and neither correlated with gross pathology scores. Vacuolar change indicates physiological disturbance, which is consistent with potential effects from oil exposure but also could be influenced by a number of other factors. We concluded that, as of 2008, some differences in liver health were evident between sea otters from oiled and unoiled areas; these differences were consistent with, but not specific to, effects that might be expected with sublethal exposure to lingering Exxon Valdez oil. We also quantified variation in survival of radiomarked sea otters within oiled areas of WPWS in relation to age, sex, body condition, selected blood serum chemistry variables, and histological scores indicative of liver health. Of the variables considered, only the serum enzyme aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and the ratio of serum proteins albumin and globulin (A/G) were correlated with survival, with higher levels of AST and lower levels of A/G associated with increased likelihood of mortality. High AST and low A/G both may be indicative of liver disease. Taken together, results reported here suggest that liver health of sea otters in oiled areas was slightly poorer than those from unoiled areas and, ifurther, that this may have translated to poorer survival through 2008, nearly 2 decades after the spill. More recently collected information indicated that mortality patterns and abundance had returned to

The protracted recovery of some bird and mammal populations in western Prince William Sound (WPWS), Alaska, and the persistence of spilled 'Exxon Valdez' oil in intertidal sediments, suggests a pathway of exposure to consumers that occupy nearshore habitats. To evaluate the hypothesis that sea otter (Enhydra lutris) foraging allows access to lingering oil, we contrast spatial relations between foraging behavior and documented oil distribution. We recovered archival time-depth recorders implanted in 19 sea otters in WPWS, where lingering oil and delayed ecosystem recovery are well documented. Sea otter foraging dives ranged from +2.7 to -92 m below sea level (MLLW), with intertidal accounting for 5 to 38% of all foraging. On average, female sea otters made 16050 intertidal dives per year and 18% of these dives were at depths above the +0.80 m tidal elevation. Males made 4100 intertidal dives per year and 26% of intertidal foraging took place at depths above the +0.80 m tidal elevation. Estimated annual oil encounter rates ranged from 2 to 24 times yr-1 for females, and 2 to 4 times yr-1 for males. Exposure rates increased in spring when intertidal foraging doubled and females were with small pups. In summer 2008, we found sea otter foraging pits on 13.5 of 24.8 km of intertidal shoreline surveyed. Most pits (82%) were within 0.5 m of the zero tidal elevation and 15% were above 0.5 m, the level above which most (65%) lingering oil remains. In August 2008, we detected oil above background concentrations in 18 of 41 (44%) pits excavated by sea otters on beaches with prior evidence of oiling, with total PAH concentrations up to 56000 ng g−1 dry weight. Our estimates of intertidal foraging, the widespread presence of foraging pits in the intertidal, and the presence of oil in and near sea otter foraging pits documents a pathway of exposure from lingering intertidal oil to sea otters foraging in WPWS.

The protracted recovery of some bird and mammal populations in western Prince William Sound (WPWS), Alaska, and the persistence of spilled ‘Exxon Valdez’ oil in intertidal sediments, suggests a pathway of exposure to consumers that occupy nearshore habitats. To evaluate the hypothesis that sea otter (Enhydra lutris) foraging allows access to lingering oil, we contrast spatial relations between foraging behavior and documented oil distribution. We recovered archival time-depth recorders implanted in 19 sea otters in WPWS, where lingering oil and de­layed ecosystem recovery are well documented. Sea otter foraging dives ranged from +2.7 to −92 m below sea level (MLLW), with intertidal accounting for 5 to 38% of all foraging. On average, female sea otters made 16050 intertidal dives per year and 18% of these dives were at depths above the +0.80 m tidal elevation. Males made 4100 intertidal dives per year and 26% of intertidal foraging took place at depths above the +0.80 m tidal elevation. Estimated annual oil encounter rates ranged from 2 to 24 times yr−1 for females, and 2 to 4 times yr−1 for males. Exposure rates increased in spring when intertidal foraging doubled and females were with small pups. In summer 2008, we found sea otter foraging pits on 13.5 of 24.8 km of intertidal shoreline surveyed. Most pits (82%) were within 0.5 m of the zero tidal elevation and 15% were above 0.5 m, the level above which most (65%) lingering oil remains. In August 2008, we detected oil above background concentrations in 18 of 41 (44%) pits excavated by sea otters on beaches with prior evidence of oiling, with total PAH concentrations up to 56000 ng g−1 dry weight. Our estimates of intertidal foraging, the widespread presence of foraging pits in the intertidal, and the presence of oil in and near sea otter foraging pits documents a pathway of exposure from lingering intertidal oil to sea otters ­foraging in WPWS.

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Photo-identification studies of Prince William Sound humpback whales were conducted from May to September in 1989 and 1990 to assess the impact on the spill on humpback whale life history and ecology. In 1989, concurrent studies were conducted in Southeast Alaska on humpback whales to determine if whales avoided contaminated waters of Prince William Sound and moved to other northern feeding areas. In 1989, photographic analysis of Prince William Sound humpbacks resulted in the identification of 59 whales. In 1990, 66 whales were documented. The increase in whale sightings may have been due to the increase in effort during the 1989 and 1990 season. Because of the difference in survey effort before and after the spill, it is impossible to determine if there was a difference in the number of humpback whales using the Sound. Distribution varied among years and may be related to prey distribution.

Oil-industry-produced revenues, help finance Alaskan state and local governmental services including education. Capital losses incurred by the Exxon Corporation and by commerical fisheries as a consequence of the Exxon Valdez oilspill caused an economic recession, the result being diminished financing for a number of governmental programs and…

Oilspill contingency planning is an essential feature required in present day activities involving oil and gas exploration, production and transportation. A well through out continency plan will not only eliminate or minimize the sense of panic, normally associated with oilspill emergency, but also can minimize damage and cost involved. Oilspill contingency planning is a process of predetermining a response to an oilspill emergency. The process of preparing a contingency plan is discussed in this paper.

The devastating environmental impacts of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and its media notoriety made it a frequent comparison to the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the popular press in 2010, even though the nature of the two spills and the environments impacted were vastly different. Fortunately, unlike higher organisms that are adversely impacted by oilspills, microorganisms are able to consume petroleum hydrocarbons. These oil degrading indigenous microorganisms played a significant role in reducing the overall environmental impact of both the Exxon Valdez and BP Deepwater Horizon oilspills.

Several classroom activities using a model of a seashore and an oilspill demonstrate the basic properties of oilspills in oceans. Students brainstorm about how to best clean up the mess. They work in teams, and after agreeing on how they will proceed, their method is tested by measuring the amount of oil removed and by rating the cleanliness of…

A two year programme has been carried out by the NHL University of Applied Sciences together with private companies in the field of oil and chemical spill response to finalize these manuals on oil and chemical spill response. These manuals give a good overview of all aspects of oil and chemical

Several classroom activities using a model of a seashore and an oilspill demonstrate the basic properties of oilspills in oceans. Students brainstorm about how to best clean up the mess. They work in teams, and after agreeing on how they will proceed, their method is tested by measuring the amount of oil removed and by rating the cleanliness of…

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Full Text Available Following the Exxon Valdez oilspill in Prince William Sound Alaska, on March 24, 1989, treatment centres for sea otters were set up at Valdez, Seward and Homer. Otter survival rates were lower at Valdez than at Seward, probably because the animals collected were closer to the spill in time and space, and oil toxicity was at a maximum. Otters collected in Prince William Sound were predominantly female and pregnant or lactating. Weathered oil persists in otter habitats throughout the spill zone - long term studies are underway to assess the effects of this.

EPA monitors impacts and mitigates the effects of spilledoil, which threatens public health and safety, contaminates drinking water, causes fire and explosion, diminishes air and water quality, harms ecosystems, and more.

It has been hypothesized that pink salmon eggs incubating in intertidal streams transecting Prince William Sound (PWS) beaches oiled by the Exxon Valdez oilspill were exposed to lethal doses of dissolved hydrocarbons. Since polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) levels in the incubation gravel were too low to cause mortality, the allegation is that dissolved high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons (HPAH) leaching from oil deposits on the beach adjacent to the streams were the source of toxicity. To evaluate this hypothesis, we placed pink salmon eggs in PWS beach sediments containing residual oil from the Exxon Valdez oilspill and in control areas without oil. We quantified the hydrocarbon concentrations in the eggs after three weeks of incubation. Tissue PAH concentrations of eggs in oiled sediments were generally < 100 ppb and similar to background levels on nonoiled beaches. Even eggs in direct contact with oil in the sediment resulted in tissue PAH loads well below the lethal threshold concentrations established in laboratory bioassays, and very low concentrations of HPAH compounds were present. These results indicate that petroleum hydrocarbons dissolved from oil deposits on intertidal beaches are not at concentrations that pose toxic risk to incubating pink salmon eggs. The evidence does not support the hypothesis that interstitial pore water in previously oiled beaches is highly toxic.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest oilspill in United States history. Crude oils are highly toxic to developing fish embryos, and many pelagic fish species were spawning in the northern Gulf in the months before containment of the damaged Mississippi Canyon 252 (MC252) wellhead (April-July). The largest prior U.S. spill was the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez that released 11 million gallons of Alaska North Slope crude oil (ANSCO) into Prince William Sound. Numerous studies in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill defined a conventional crude oil injury phenotype in fish early life stages, mediated primarily by toxicity to the developing heart. To determine whether this type of injury extends to fishes exposed to crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon - MC252 incident, we used zebrafish to compare the embryotoxicity of ANSCO alongside unweathered and weathered MC252 oil. We also developed a standardized protocol for generating dispersed oil water-accommodated fractions containing microdroplets of crude oil in the size range of those detected in subsurface plumes in the Gulf. We show here that MC252 oil and ANSCO cause similar cardiotoxicity and photo-induced toxicity in zebrafish embryos. Morphological defects and patterns of cytochrome P450 induction were largely indistinguishable and generally correlated with polycyclic aromatic compound (PAC) composition of each oil type. Analyses of embryos exposed during different developmental windows provided additional insight into mechanisms of crude oil cardiotoxicity. These findings indicate that the impacts of MC252 crude oil on fish embryos and larvae are consistent with the canonical ANSCO cardiac injury phenotype. For those marine fish species that spawned in the northern Gulf of Mexico during and after the Deepwater Horizon incident, the established literature can therefore inform the assessment of natural resource injury in the form of potential year-class losses.

We examined hepatic EROD activity, as an indicator of CYP1A induction, in Barrow's goldeneyes captured in areas oiled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and those from nearby unoiled areas. We found that average EROD activity differed between areas during 2005, although the magnitude of the difference was reduced relative to a previous study from 1996/1997, and we found that areas did not differ by 2009. Similarly, we found that the proportion of individuals captured from oiled areas with elevated EROD activity (-2 times unoiled average) declined from 41% in winter 1996/1997 to 10% in 2005 and 15% in 2009. This work adds to a body of literature describing the timelines over which vertebrates were exposed to residual Exxon Valdez oil and indicates that, for Barrow's goldeneyes in Prince William Sound, exposure persisted for many years with evidence of substantially reduced exposure by 2 decades after the spill. ?? 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

The impacts of oilspills -- ranging from the large, widely publicized Exxon Valdez tanker incident to smaller pipeline and refinery spills -- have been costly to both the oil industry and the public. For example, the estimated costs to Exxon of the Valdez tanker spill are on the order of $4 billion, including $2.8 billion (in 1993 dollars) for direct cleanup costs and $1.125 billion (in 1992 dollars) for settlement of damages claims caused by the spill. Application of contingent valuation costs and civil lawsuits pending in the State of Alaska could raise these costs appreciably. Even the costs of the much smaller 1991 oilspill at Texaco`s refinery near Anacortes, Washington led to costs of $8 to 9 million. As a result, inexpensive waming, response and remediation technologies could lower oil spin costs, helping both the oil industry, the associated marine industries, and the environment. One means for reducing the impact and costs of oilspills is to undertake research and development on key aspects of the oilspill prevention, warming, and response and remediation systems. To target these funds to their best use, it is important to have sound data on the nature and size of spills, their likely occurrence and their unit costs. This information could then allow scarce R&D dollars to be spent on areas and activities having the largest impact. This report is intended to provide the ``unit cost`` portion of this crucial information. The report examines the three key components of the US oil supply system, namely, tankers and barges; pipelines and refineries; and offshore production facilities. The specific purpose of the study was to establish the unit costs of oilspills. By manipulating this key information into a larger matrix that includes the size and frequency of occurrence of oilspills, it will be possible` to estimate the likely future impacts, costs, and sources of oilspills.

For sixteen years following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill adult returns of pink salmon in Prince William Sound, Alaska were monitored to assess spill effects on survival. No evidence of spill effects was detected for either intertidal or whole-stream spawning fish. From 1989 through 2004 mean densities for oiled and reference streams tracked each other, illustrating similar responses of oiled and reference stream adult populations to naturally changing oceanographic and climactic conditions. Hatchery fish strayed into the study streams, but similar incursions occurred in oiled and reference streams, and their presence was compensated for to eliminate their influence on determining the success of the returning natural populations. These results, showing no detectable effects of oiling on pink salmon spawning populations, are supported by published field studies on pink salmon incubation success in oiled streams. (author)

Oil stranded as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill has persisted for >10 years at study sites on Gulf of Alaska shores distant from the spill's origin. These sites were contaminated by 'oil mousse', which persists in these settings due to armoring of underlying sediments and their included oil beneath boulder. The boulder-armored beaches that we resampled in 1999 showed continued contamination by subsurface oil, despite their exposure to moderate to high wave energies. Significant declines in surface oil cover occurred at all study sites. In contrast, mousse has persisted under boulders in amounts similar to what was present in 1994 and probably in 1989. Especially striking is the general lack of weathering of this subsurface oil over the last decade. Oil at five of the six armored-beach sites 10 years after the spill is compositionally similar to 11-day old Exxon Valdez oil. Analysis of movements in the boulder-armor that covers the study beaches reveals that only minor shifts have occurred since 1994, suggesting that over the last five, and probably over the last 10 years, boulder-armors have remained largely unmoved at the study sites. These findings emphasize the importance of particular geomorphic parameters in determining stranded oil persistence. Surface armoring, combined with stranding of oil mousse, results in the unexpectedly lengthy persistence of only lightly to moderately weathered oil within otherwise high-energy wave environments. (author)

Petroleum Remediation Product (PRP) is a new way of cleaning up oilspills. It consists of thousands of microcapsules, tiny balls of beeswax with hollow centers, containing live microorganisms and nutrients to sustain them. As oil flows through the microcapsule's shell, it is consumed and digested by the microorganisms. Pressure buildup causes the PRP to explode and the enzymes, carbon dioxide and water are released into the BioBoom used in conjunction with PRP, preventing contaminated water from spreading. The system incorporates technology originally developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Marshall Space Flight Center.

The Prince William Sound Regional Citizen's Advisory Council and the Cook Inlet Regional Citizen's Advisory Council are independent, non profit organizations formed in 1989 following the Exxon Valdez oilspill to promote the concept of community-based oilspill response (COSR) in their respective regions. COSR involves local citizens in responding to oilspilled in waters they rely upon for income, recreation and subsistence. The 2 advisory councils recently held a Community OilSpill Response Forum to review the status of existing COSR teams and to share information about past and future COSR-related efforts. The meeting served as an information exchange process about regulatory programs, COSR variations in communities and harbors, training, and personnel issues. Key groups attending the forum were harbor masters, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, United States Coast Guard, existing COSR teams, oil response organizations, local community governments, and volunteers from the advisory councils. This paper was based on the notes taken from the forum. It was agreed that the current system is inadequate in its response to small spills that are frequently associated with non-tank vessels. It was suggested that improved capacity for community-based response could address the situation. It was also suggested that work groups should meet on an annual or biannual basis to continue to educate responders and communities about oilspill response. 7 refs.

A large chemistry data set for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and saturated hydrocarbon (SHC) contamination in sediment, water and tissue samples has emerged in the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. When the oil was fresh, source identification was a primary objective and fairly reliable. However, source identification became problematic as the oil weathered and its signatures changed. In response to concerns regarding when the impacted area will be clean again, this study focused on developing appropriate tools to confirm hydrocarbon source identifications and assess weathering in various matrices. Previous efforts that focused only on the whole or particulate-phase oil are not adequate to track dissolved-phase signal with low total PAH values. For that reason, a particulate signature index (PSI) and dissolved signature index (DSI) screening tool was developed in this study to discriminate between these 2 phases. The screening tool was used to measure the dissolved or water-soluble fraction of crude oil which occurs at much lower levels than the particulate phase, but which is more widely circulated and equally as important as the particulate oil phase. The discrimination methods can also identify normally-discarded, low total PAH samples which can increase the amount of usable data needed to model other effects of oilspills. 37 refs., 3 tabs., 10 figs.

The phases of an oilspill response can be classified as initial response, project phase, end phase and the monitoring phase. The initial on-water phase of the response or shoreline cleanup includes the development of contingency planning, stockpiling of equipment and research into response equipment for removing oil on water. Lack of planning for a response can lead to an initial response that has less than satisfactory results. An initial assessment of the oilspill response begins at the moment the spill occurs and continues for days, depending on the quality of the initial response. This phase includes the use of booms, skimmers, dispersants and in-situ burning. It was emphasized that oilspill research should focus on gathering scientific information needed to make decisions during the project phase and beyond. Typically, this will involve the study of long-term impacts and should be undertaken in a research environment in order to apply new data to any spill scenario. This paper highlighted knowledge needs to support decisions in the cleanup phase. The Exxon Valdez incident provided information on the long-term impacts of a variety of cleanup techniques. This paper also addressed damage assessment and restoration issues along with the decision to terminate a response. Once a response has been terminated, long-term monitoring of the ecosystem begins in order to identify the spill impact. 9 refs., 6 figs.

This report incorporates information collected by NCLC in telephone surveys conducted from July through August 1989. As with the previous reports, the information we collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in a series of tables and in the narrative summary section of the report. Section 1 of the report provides background information regarding the two main sources of oil overcharge funds distributed to the states since 1986 (the Exxon and Stripper Well cases). Section 2 provides a brief overview of NCLC's findings on the status of state allocation decisions and on specific uses of these funds. Section 3 of the report, which provides a narrative summary of each state's Exxon and Stripper Well oil overcharge allocations, gives specific examples of some of the programs or projects funded with both these funds, with an emphasis on low-income uses. While information for some states may include all allocations made, the narrative section is not intended to be an exhaustive list of funded projects. Where available, the allocation process used by each state is also provided. Finally, Section 4 contains important notes, relating to the series of tables that follow, as well as the tables themselves. 10 tabs.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This hydrocarbon database was initiated after the Exxon Valdez oilspill in 1989. The first version was as an RBase database, PWSOIL(Short, Heintz et al. 1996). It...

From the Second International Conference on Oil and Hydrocarbon Spills. Modelling, Analysis and Control : OILSPILL 2000.......From the Second International Conference on Oil and Hydrocarbon Spills. Modelling, Analysis and Control : OILSPILL 2000....

From the Second International Conference on Oil and Hydrocarbon Spills. Modelling, Analysis and Control : OILSPILL 2000.......From the Second International Conference on Oil and Hydrocarbon Spills. Modelling, Analysis and Control : OILSPILL 2000....

The stated purpose of this publication is to describe some of the more significant spill incidents and the mechanisms, both managerial and technological, to deal with them. This publication is targeted for school, general public, and other such audiences. Sections include effects of spills, prevention of spills, responding to spills, spill…

Despite great efforts including bioremediation, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspills persist in many gravel beaches in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA. To explore this mystery, a lithium tracer study was conducted along two transects on one of these beaches. The tracer injections and transports were successfully simulated using the 2-dimensional numerical model MARUN. The tracer stayed much longer in the oil-persisting, right transect (facing landwand) than in the clean, left transect. If the tracer is approximately regarded as oils, oils in the upper layer would have more opportunities to enter the lower layer in the right transect than in the left one. This may qualitatively explain the oil persistence within the right transect. When the tracer is regarded as nutrients, the long stay of nutrients within the right transect implies that the oil persistence along the right transect was not due to the lack of nutrients during the bioremediation.

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According to the practice researching and formulating "The OilSpill Contingency Plan of South Chinese Sea", this paper analyses and discusses the structure, functions and main contents of marine oilspill contingency planning, programs the organizing and commanding system and emergency response system, and advances the planning and researching method to coordinate comprehensively and to design practically the detailed emergency response steps until to formulate the ease operating programs for the plan implementation (PPI) and the PPI to apply high-techniques supporting emergency administrations and response.

Full Text Available Major oilspills normally occur from oil pipelines and oil tankers that are under operational control of companies, namely, oil companies and tanker owners. There are two generic responses for changing the behavior of companies with regard to oilspill prevention: mandatory government regulation or voluntary initiatives often pursued under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR. Here we investigate to what extent voluntary CSR initiatives can be effective in oilspill prevention. A global perspective on voluntary mechanisms is taken by looking at the progress of 20 oil and gas firms from around the world toward oilspill prevention, using the companies' 2010 sustainability reports for self-reported oilspill information. The analysis includes ten oil companies from OECD countries (including Exxon and Shell, among others and 10 oil companies from non-OECD countries (including Brazil's Petrobras and Indian Oil, among others. The study finds that oilspill prevention has generally improved over recent decades. Government regulation played a significant part in these improvements whereas it is less clear to what extent CSR played a significant part in these improvements. Some of CSR's key limitations are highlighted. It is not suggested that CSR should be abandoned; however, new hybrid forms of regulation that combine voluntary and mandatory elements are advocated.

Marine pollution has been highlighted thanks to the advances in detection techniques as well as increasing coverage of catastrophes (e.g. the oil tankers Amoco Cadiz, Exxon Valdez, Erika, and Prestige) and of smaller oilspills from ships. The new satellite based sensors SAR and ASAR and new methods of oilspill detection and analysis coupled with self-similar statistical techniques allow surveys of environmental pollution monitoring large areas of the ocean. We present a statistical analysis of more than 700 SAR images obtained during 1996-2000, also comparing the detected small pollution events with the historical databases of great marine accidents during 1966-2004 in European coastal waters. We show that the statistical distribution of the number of oilspills as a function of their size corresponds to Zipf's law, and that the common small spills are comparable to the large accidents due to the high frequency of the smaller pollution events. Marine pollution from tankers and ships, which has been detected as oilspills between 0.01 and 100 km{sup 2}, follows the marine transit routes. Multi-fractal methods are used to distinguish between natural slicks and spills, in order to estimate the oilspill index in European coastal waters, and in particular, the north-western Mediterranean Sea, which, due to the influence of local winds, shows optimal conditions for oilspill detection.

MEDSLIK oilspill model recent developments Robin Lardner and George Zodiatis Oceanography Center, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus MEDSLIK is a well established 3D oilspill model that predicts the transport, fate and weathering of oilspills and is used by several response agencies and institutions around the Mediterranean, the Black seas and worldwide. MEDSLIK has been used operationally for real oilspill accidents and for preparedness in contingency planning within the framework of pilot projects with REMPEC-Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea and EMSA-European Maritime Safety Agency. MEDSLIK has been implemented in many EU funded projects regarding oilspill predictions using the operational ocean forecasts, as for example the ECOOP, NEREIDs, RAOP-Med, EMODNET MedSea Check Point. Within the frame of MEDESS4MS project, MEDSLIK is at the heart of the MEDESS4MS multi model oilspill prediction system. The MEDSLIK oilspill model contains among other, the following features: a built-in database with 240 different oil types characteristics, assimilation of oil slick observations from in-situ or aerial, to correct the predictions, virtual deployment of oil booms and/or oil skimmers/dispersants, continuous or instantaneous oilspills from moving or drifting ships whose slicks merge can be modelled together, multiple oilspill predictions from different locations, backward simulations for tracking the source of oilspill pollution, integration with AIS data upon the availability of AIS data, sub-surface oilspills at any given water depth, coupling with SAR satellite data. The MEDSLIK can be used for operational intervention for any user-selected region in the world if the appropriate coastline, bathymetry and meteo-ocean forecast files are provided. MEDSLIK oilspill model has been extensively validated in the Mediterranean Sea, both in real oilspill incidents (i.e. during the Lebanese oil pollution crisis in

The impact of the Exxon Valdez oilspill on the herring population in Prince William Sound, was studied. Following the incident in 1989, there was no commercial harvest of herring. However, 1990 through 1992 proved to have above average, record harvests. This was followed by a dramatic decline in 1993 which was generally attributed to the oilspill. An examination of the scientific data was conducted. The main hypotheses for the decline were tested. These hypotheses attributed the decline to: (1) the oilspill itself, (2) a combination of increasing herring biomass and decreasing food supply, (3) disease, and (4) other natural stochastic processes. Based on the review of the data and the analysis of the four alternative hypotheses, it was concluded that the population decline of 1993 was the result of a combination of increasing herring biomass and decreasing food supply. No connection to the Exxon Valdez incident was evident. 22 refs., 6 figs.

Oilspills are seriously affecting the marine ecosystem and cause political and scientific concern since they have serious affect on fragile marine and coastal ecosystem. In order to implement an emergency in case of oilspills, it is necessary to monitor oilspill using remote sensing. Spaceborne SAR is considered a promising method to monitor oilspill, which causes attention from many researchers. However, research in SAR image texture analysis of oilspill is rarely reported. On 7 December 2007, a crane-carrying barge hit the Hong Kong-registered tanker "Hebei Spirit", which released an estimated 10,500 metric tons of crude oil into the sea. The texture features on this oilspill were acquired based on extracted GLCM (Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix) by using SAR as data source. The affected area was extracted successfully after evaluating capabilities of different texture features to monitor the oilspill. The results revealed that the texture is an important feature for oilspill monitoring. Key words: oilspill, texture analysis, SAR

Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria are ubiquitous in the sea, including hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria that utilize hydrocarbons almost exclusively as carbon and energy sources. However, the rates at which they naturally degrade petroleum following an oilspill appear to be too slow to prevent oil from reaching the shore and causing environmental damage, as has been documented in the Exxon Valdez and Gulf of Mexico disasters. Unfortunately, there is, at present, no experimentally demonstrated methodology for accelerating the degradation of hydrocarbons in the sea. The rate-limiting factor for petroleum degradation in the sea is availability of nitrogen and phosphorus. Oleophilic fertilizers, such as Inipol EAP 22 and urea-formaldehyde polymers, have stimulated hydrocarbon degradation on shorelines but are less effective in open systems. We suggest uric acid as a potentially useful fertilizer enhancing bioremediation at sea.

Extended use of GC-FID and GC-MS in oilspill fingerprinting and matching is significantly important for oil classification from the oilspill sources collected from various areas of Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah (East Malaysia). Oilspill fingerprinting from GC-FID and GC-MS coupled with chemometric techniques (discriminant analysis and principal component analysis) is used as a diagnostic tool to classify the types of oil polluting the water. Clustering and discrimination of oilspill compounds in the water from the actual site of oilspill events are divided into four groups viz. diesel, Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), Mixture Oil containing Light Fuel Oil (MOLFO) and Waste Oil (WO) according to the similarity of their intrinsic chemical properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrates that diesel, HFO, MOLFO and WO are types of oil or oil products from complex oil mixtures with a total variance of 85.34% and are identified with various anthropogenic activities related to either intentional releasing of oil or accidental discharge of oil into the environment. Our results show that the use of chemometric techniques is significant in providing independent validation for classifying the types of spilledoil in the investigation of oilspill pollution in Malaysia. This, in consequence would result in cost and time saving in identification of the oilspill sources.

We report a field study and numerical modeling of multicomponent flow in a tidal gravel beach in Knight Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska, where oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill persisted. Field measurements of water table, salinity, and tracer (lithium) concentration were obtained for around a week during the summer of 2008. The numerical model MARUN was used to simulate the field observations. On the basis of field experiments and numerical simulations, the beach was identified to have a two-layered hydraulic structure: a high-permeability surface layer underlain by a low-permeability lower layer. The hydraulic conductivity was found to be 5 × 10-2 m s-1 for the surface layer and 7 × 10-6 m s-1 for the lower layer. The simulations reproduced the observed water table, salinity, and lithium concentrations accurately. The small flow entering the beach from the land side resulted in a beach water table dropping below the interface of the two layers. This seems to be the major reason for the presence of oil in the lower layer. The exchange flow between the beach and the sea due to tidal influence was ˜2.12 m3 d-1 m-1. The patterns of inflow and outflow rates showed that the maximum seawater-groundwater exchange occurred in the middle to high intertidal zone, which explains the persistence of oil in the lower intertidal zone. To explore bioremediation of the beach with nutrient amendment, a numerical simulation of nutrient application on the beach surface was conducted, where the applied nutrient concentration was 5,000 mg L-1. The results showed that the nutrient concentration remaining in oiled areas after a week was larger than 50 mg L-1, which is larger than that needed for maximum microbial growth (2-10 mg L-1). This implies that the bioremediation via nutrient application on the beach surface could be adopted if nutrients were the only limiting factor.

Since March of 1986, state governments have received roughly $3.46 billion in funds obtained by the federal government through two major cases, based on price overcharges committed by numerous oil companies during the period of price controls, between 1973 and 1981. Furthermore, about another $1 billion may still be collected from oil companies, with roughly 1/2 to be distributed to the states (and the other 1/2 to the federal government), over the next 5 to 10 years. The role of state government is to allocate the funds, within the specific case guidelines, to new or existing energy programs, in a way which is designed to benefit (or provide restitution to) the class or classes of purchasers who bore the burden of the overcharges. This report incorporates information collected by NCLC through telephone surveys conducted during July, 1990. The information we collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in the state-by-state narrative summary section and in a series of tables at the end of the report. Each of the quarterly reports tracks final state decisions allocating use of these funds. The terms allocated'' and designated'' are used interchangeably throughout the document to mean that final state decisions have been made regarding these funds. Tracking state allocations about these funds is the only practical way for us to provide an overview of the actual status of state processes or decisions which have occurred with regard to this money. 8 tabs.

A method for removing oil from the surface of water where an oilspill has occurred, particularly in obstructed or shallow areas, which comprises partially surrounding a hovercraft with a floating oil-collecting barrier, there being no barrier at the front of the hovercraft, moving the oil-barrier-surrounded-hovercraft into oil contaminated water, and collecting oil gathered within the barrier behind the hovercraft through a suction line which carries the oil to a storage tank aboard the hovercraft. The invention also embodies the hovercraft adapted to effect an oilspill cleanup.

Oilspill pollution is a severe environmental problem that persists in the marine environment and in inland water systems around the world. Remote sensing is an important part of oilspill response. The hyperspectral images can not only provide the space information but also the spectral information. Pixels of interests generally incorporate information from disparate component that requires quantitative decomposition of these pixels to extract desired information. Oilspill detection can be implemented by applying hyperspectral camera which can collect the hyperspectral data of the oil. By extracting desired spectral signature from hundreds of band information, one can detect and identify oilspill area in vast geographical regions. There are now numerous hyperspectral image processing algorithms developed for target detection. In this paper, we investigate several most widely used target detection algorithm for the identification of surface oilspills in ocean environment. In the experiments, we applied a hyperspectral camera to collect the real life oilspill. The experimental results shows the feasibility of oilspill detection using hyperspectral imaging and the performance of hyperspectral image processing algorithms were also validated.

Full Text Available The spreading of oil in an open ocean may cause serious damage to a marine environmental system. Thus, an accurate prediction of oilspill is very important to minimize coastal damage due to unexpected oilspill accident. The movement of oil may be represented with a numerical model that solves an advection-diffusion-reaction equation with a proper numerical scheme. In this study, the spilledoil dispersion model has been established in consideration of tide and tidal currents simultaneously. The velocity components in the advection-diffusion-reaction equation are obtained from the shallow-water equations. The accuracy of the model is verified by applying it to a simple but significant problem. The results produced by the model agree with corresponding analytical solutions and field-observed data. The model is then applied to predict the spreading of an oilspill in a real coastal environment.

When spilled in the ocean, most crude oils quickly spread into a thin film that ruptures into smaller slicks distributed over a larger area. Observers have also reported the film tearing apart into streaks that eventually merge forming fewer but longer bands of floating oil. Understanding this process is important to model oilspill transport. First, slick area is calculated using a spreading model. Next, Langmuir circulation models are used to approximate the merging of oiled bands. Calculations are performed on Troll blended and Alaska North Slope crude oils and results compared with measurements from the 1990s North Sea field experiments. Langmuir circulation increases the oil area but decreases the surface coverage of oil. This work modifies existing oil spreading formulas by providing a surface area correction due to the effects of Langmuir circulation. The model's simplicity is advantageous in situations with limited data, such as emergency oilspill response. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Deepwater Horizon accident (DWH) of April 20th, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) released crude oil into the ocean column for 4 months. An estimated 685,000 tons of crude oil was released, making DWH spill the largest accidental spill in maritime history. The immediate impacts of the spill were evident, including oil slicks, fouled beaches and fouled, often dead wildlife. Longer-term impacts are less understood, and reliance on studies of past spills, e.g. Exxon Valdez, may not be applicable given the substantially greater magnitude of DWH (Valdez spilled 37,000 tons) and different environmental settings (predominantly rocky shorelines vs. saltmarsh-dominated coastlines). Many molluscan species exhibit responses to oilspills or other hydrocarbon contamination. Bivalved molluscs are commonly used as bioindicator organisms in part because they concentrate both metals and organic contaminants in their soft tissues. We used the American oyster Crassostrea virginica to measure exposure to and impact of the spill as the abnormal transformation of soft-tissues, or metaplasia. Metaplasia is the reversible transformation of one cell type into another. Molluscan metaplasia has been associated with exposure to petroleum contamination. While oyster epithelium is normally stratified columnar and ciliated, experimental exposures often result in metaplasia of gill, digestive and renal tissues. The occurrence and frequency of metaplasia may also be an indication of the longevity of a spill's impact. For example, individuals of the mussel Mytilus trossulus in Prince William Sound continued to exhibit metaplasia of the digestive gland more than 5 years after the Exxon Valdez spill, with an occurrence directly related to concentrations of PAHs in the animals. We focused on the hypothesis that DWH spill exposure resulted in metaplasia of gill and digestive epithelial tissues, both during and after the spill. Those transformations are eventually reversible, although on an unknown

For the first time a statistical analysis of oilspill beaching is applied to the whole Mediterranean Sea. A series of probability maps of beaching in case of an oilspill incident are proposed as a complementary tool to vulnerability analysis and risk assessment in the whole basin. As a first approach a set of spill source points are selected along the main paths of tankers and a few points of special interest related with hot spot areas or oil platforms. Probability of beaching on coastal segments are obtained for 3 types of oil characterised by medium to highly persistence in water. The approach is based on Lagrangian simulations using particles as a proxy of oilspills evolving according the environmental conditions provided by a hincast model of the Mediterranean circulation.

Full Text Available Mental health issues are a significant concern after technological disasters such as the 2010 Gulf OilSpill; however, there is limited knowledge about the long-term effects of oilspills. The study was part of a larger research effort to improve understanding of the mental and behavioral health effects of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf OilSpill. Data were collected immediately following the spill and the same individuals were resampled again after the second anniversary (n = 314. The results show that mental health symptoms of depression, serious mental illness and posttraumatic stress have not statistically decreased, and anxiety symptoms were statistically equivalent to immediate symptoms. Results also showed that the greatest effect on anxiety is related to the extent of disruption to participants’ lives, work, family, and social engagement. This study supports lessons learned following the Exxon Valdez spill suggesting that mental health effects are long term and recovery is slow. Elevated symptoms indicate the continued need for mental health services, especially for individuals with high levels of disruption resulting in increased anxiety. Findings also suggest that the longer-term recovery trajectories following the Deepwater Horizon Gulf OilSpill do not fall within traditional disaster recovery timelines.

The phases of an oilspill response can be classified as initial response, project phase, end phase and the monitoring phase. The initial on-water phase of the response or shoreline cleanup includes the development of contingency planning, stockpiling of equipment and research into response equipment for removing oil on water. Lack of planning for a response can lead to an initial response that has less than satisfactory results. An initial assessment of the oilspill response begins at the moment the spill occurs and continues for days, depending on the quality of the initial response. This phase includes the use of booms, skimmers, dispersants and in-situ burning. It was emphasized that oilspill research should focus on gathering scientific information needed to make decisions during the project phase and beyond. Typically, this will involve the study of long-term impacts and should be undertaken in a research environment in order to apply new data to any spill scenario. This paper highlighted knowledge needs to support decisions in the cleanup phase. The Exxon Valdez incident provided information on the long-term impacts of a variety of cleanup techniques. This paper also addressed damage assessment and restoration issues along with the decision to terminate a response. Once a response has been terminated, long-term monitoring of the ecosystem begins in order to identify the spill impact. 9 refs., 6 figs.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — A major oil or hazardous substance spill may constitute an emergency situation requiring prompt actions by the Service to protect threatened natural resources. This...

ConocoPhillips China, a subsidiary of the US oil giant, operates an oilfield in Bohai Bay in partnership with Chinese offshore oil producer China National Offshore Oil Company （CNOOC）, where a massive oil slick was detected on June 4 this year. The spill from the oilfield, which the United States＇ ConocoPhillips operates with China＇s state-run oil giant CNOOC, has polluted a total area of almost 4,250 square kilometers. The figures,

Reducing the risk of oilspill disasters is essential for protecting the environment and reducing economic losses. Oilspill surveillance constitutes an important component of oilspill disaster management. Advances in remote sensing technologies can help to identify parties potentially responsible for pollution and to identify minor spills before they cause widespread damage. Due to the large number of sensors currently available for oilspill surveillance, there is a need for a comprehensiv...

The paper introduces systematically the developing principle ofCWCM 1.0 oilspill model based on Lagrange system and oilspill fate processes in environment, reviews two oilspill incidents of "East Ambassador" in Jiaozhou Bay and "Min Fuel 2" in the mouth of Pearl River, and designs the predict system simulating oilspill applied in contingency plans. It is indicated that CWCM 1.0 has met preliminarily the demands for functions of precision simulating and oilspill predicting, and can plan an important role to support oilspill response.

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill was the largest spill and response effort in United States history. Nearly 800 million L of oil was spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, and nearly 7 million L of chemical dispersants were applied in at the ocean surface and subsea1. The DWH spill ...

In the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill, spatially and temporally spill-correlated biological effects consistent with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure were observed. Some works have proposed that confounding sources from local source rocks, prominently coals, are the provenance of the PAHs. Representative coal deposits along the southeast Alaskan coast (Kulthieth Formation) were sampled and fully characterized chemically and geologically. The coals have variable but high total organic carbon content, technically classifying as coals and coaly shale, and highly varying PAH contents. Even for coals with high PAH content (4000 ppm total PAHs), a PAH-sensitive bacterial biosensor demonstrates nondetectable bioavailability as quantified, based on naphthalene as a test calibrant. These results are consistent with studies indicating that materials such as coals strongly diminish the bioavailability of hydrophobic organic compounds and support previous work suggesting that hydrocarbons associated with the regional background in northern Gulf of Alaska marine sediments are not appreciably bioavailable. 44 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.

Oilspills in ice filled and Arctic waters pose other challenges for oilspill response compared to open and temperate waters. In situ burning has been proven to be an effective oilspill response method for oilspills in ice filled waters. This thesis presents results from laboratory and field...... experiments where the ignitability of oilspill as a function of oil type and weathering conditions (time/ice) was tested. The results show that the composition of the oil and the ice cover is important for the in situ burning time-window. The results were used to develop an algorithm that was implemented...

Offshore oilspills are of tremendous concern due to their potential impact on economic and ecological systems. A number of major oilspills triggered worldwide consciousness of oilspill preparedness and response. Challenges remain in diverse aspects such as oilspill monitoring, analysis, assessment, contingency planning, response, cleanup, and decision support. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current situations and impacts of offshore oilspills, as well as the policies and technologies in offshore oilspill response and countermeasures. Correspondingly, new strategies and a decision support framework are recommended for improving the capacities and effectiveness of oilspill response and countermeasures. In addition, the emerging challenges in cold and harsh environments are reviewed with recommendations due to increasing risk of oilspills in the northern regions from the expansion of the Arctic Passage.

An oilspill forecast system for offshore China was developed based on Visual C++. The oilspill forecast system includes an ocean environmental forecast model and an oilspill model. The ocean environmental forecast model was designed to include timesaving methods, and comprised a parametrical wind wave forecast model and a sea surface current forecast model. The oilspill model was based on the "particle method" and fulfills the prediction of oil particle behavior by considering the drifting, evaporation and emulsification processes. A specific database was embedded into the oilspill forecast system, which contained fundamental information, such as the properties of oil, reserve of emergency equipment and distribution of marine petroleum platform. The oilspill forecast system was successfully applied as part of an oilspill emergency exercise, and provides an operational service in the Research and Development Center for Offshore Oil Safety and Environmental Technology.

The development of oil sorbents with high sorption capacity, low cost, scalable fabrication, and high selectivity is of great significance for water environmental protection, especially for oil spillage on seawater. In this work, we report nanoporous polystyrene (PS) fibers prepared via a one-step electrospinning process used as oil sorbents for oilspill cleanup. The oleophilic-hydrophobic PS oil sorbent with highly porous structures shows a motor oil sorption capacity of 113.87 g/g, approximately 3-4 times that of natural sorbents and nonwoven polypropylene fibrous mats. Additionally, the sorbents also exhibit a relatively high sorption capacity for edible oils, such as bean oil (111.80 g/g) and sunflower seed oil (96.89 g/g). The oil sorption mechanism of the PS sorbent and the sorption kinetics were investigated. Our nanoporous material has great potential for use in wastewater treatment, oil accident remediation and environmental protection.

Regional air quality around coastal regions, where regular maritime traffic emissions from cargo, other commercial, fishing and military vessels are significantly active, can be affected by their direct emission of primary air pollutants (NOx, SO2, particulate matter (PM), etc.). For instance, harbor traffic exerted an important impact on NO2, SO2, O3, and PM levels. In addition, regional air quality around coastal regions is also affected by oilspill caused by ship accident in the coast. On 7 Dec., 2007, a barge carrying a crane hit the oil tanker MT Hebei Sprit off the west coast of the Republic of Korea, Yellow Sea (approximately 10 km off the coast), at 0700 local time, causing the spill of total estimated 12,547 tons of Iranian heavy (IH) and Kuwait Export (KE) crude oils. Since then, oil began coming on shore late in the night on 7 Dec. More than 150 km of coastline had been identified as being impacted by 17 Dec. Much of the affected area is part of the Taean-gun National Park and the nearest coastal city to spilled area is Taean. On 8 Dec., the flow of oil from the tanker was stopped when the holes were patched. The accident is the worst oilspill in Korea and the spill area is about one-third of the size of the Exxon Valdez oilspill. The short- and long-term effects of oilspill on marine environment have been numerously studied, not on atmospheric environment. In this study, the air quality impact near spilled area by the evaporation of hydrocarbons from the oilspill is studied in detail. The evaporation rates of the volatile fractions of the crude oils released by oilspill were estimated based on their mole fractions of crude oils and mass transfer coefficients. Based on a molecular diffusion process, the flux of spilledoil component (Fivap, mol m-2 s-1) can be expressed as follows: Fivap = Kivap(Civap - C∞vap) (1) where Civap is concentration (mol m-3) of a component i of crude oil vapor in the air at the oil-air interface; C∞vap is the

Presented in this unit are three activities concerning the causes and effects of oilspills and methods used to clean up these spills in the oceans and Great Lakes. Students construct and interpret a graph showing oil pollution sources. The students create and try to clean up a small-scale oilspill in a pan, and they compare the water quality of…

On 30 May 2006, a bulk carrier, MV Ocean Seraya ran aground along the Karwar coast spilling 650 tonnes of oil. Due to the rough SW monsoon, the spill spread to some beaches in south Goa. The aim of this communication is to study the immediate impact...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Trajectory maps are produced using GNOME (General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment), which is an oilspill trajectory model developed by OR and academic...

Highlights: • Up-cycling one type of pollution i.e. plastic waste and successfully using it to combat the other type of pollution i.e. oilspill. • Synthesized oil sorbent that has extremely high oil uptake of 90 g/g after prolonged dripping of 1 h. • Synthesized porous oil sorbent film which not only facilitates in oil sorption but also increases the affinity between sorbent and oil by means of adhesion. - Abstract: Thermoplastic polymers (such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high density polyethylene (HDPE)) constitute 5–15% of municipal solid waste produced across the world. A huge quantity of plastic waste is disposed of each year and is mostly either discarded in landfills or incinerated. On the other hand, the usage of synthetic polymers as oil sorbents, in particular, polyolefins, including polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) are the most commonly used oil sorbent materials mainly due to their low cost. However, they possess relatively low oil absorption capacities. In this work, we provide an innovative way to produce a value-added product such as oil-sorbent film with high practical oil uptake values in terms of g/g from waste HDPE bottles for rapid oilspill remedy.

The SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) has the capabilities for all-weather day and night use. In the case of determining the effects of oilspill dumping, the oilspills areas are shown as dark spots in the SAR images. Therefore, using SAR data to detect oilspills is becoming progressively popular in operational monitoring, which is useful for oceanic environmental protection and hazard reduction. Research has been conducted on the polarization decomposition and scattering characteristics of oilspills from a scattering matrix using all-polarization of the SAR data, calculation of the polarization parameters, and utilization of the CPD (Co-polarized Phase Difference) of the oil and the sea, in order to extract the oilspill information. This method proves to be effective by combining polarization parameters with the characteristics of oilspill. The results show that when using Bragg, the oilspill backscattering machine with Enopy and a mean scatterα parameter. The oilspill can be successfully identified. However, the parameter mechanism of the oilspill remains unclear. The use of CPD can easily extract oilspill information from the ocean, and the polarization research provides a base for oilspill remote sensing detection.

The technical feasibility of using combustion as an oilspill mitigation tool was studied. Part I of the two-part report is a practical guide oriented toward the needs of potential users, while Part II is the research or resource document from which the practical guidance was drawn. The study included theoretical evaluations of combustion of petroleum pool fires under the effects of weathering and an oil classification system related to combustion potential. The theoretical analysis of combustion is balanced by practical experience of oil burning and case history information. Decision elements are provided which can be used as a guide for technical evaluations of a particular oilspill situation. The rationale for assessing technical feasibility is given in the context of other alternatives available for response to an oilspill. A series of research and technology development concepts are included for future research. The ethics of using oil burning are discussed as issues, concerns, and tradeoffs. A detailed annotated bibliography is appended along with a capsule review of a decade of oil burning studies and other support information.

This report incorporates information collected by NCLC in telephone surveys conducted from April through mid-May, 1989. As with the previous report, the information we collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in a series of tables and in the narrative summary section of the report. Section I of the report provides background information regarding the two main sources of oil overcharge funds distributed to the states since 1986 (the Exxon and Stripper Well cases). Section II provides a brief overview of NCLC's findings on the status of state allocation decisions and on specific uses of these funds. Section III of the report, which provides a narrative summary of each state's Exxon and Stripper Well oil overcharge allocations, gives specific examples of some of the programs or projects funded with both these funds, with an emphasis on low-income uses. While information for some states may include all allocations made, the narrative section is not intended to be an exhaustive list of funded projects. Finally, Section IV contains important notes, relating to the series of tables that follow, as well as the tables themselves. 9 tabs.

Oilspill models can effectively simulate the trajectories and fate of oil slicks, which is an essential element in contingency planning and effective response strategies prepared for oilspill accidents. However, when applied to offshore areas such as the Bohai Sea, the trajectories and fate of oil slicks would be affected by time-varying factors in a regional scale, which are assumed to be constant in most of the present models. In fact, these factors in offshore regions show much more variation over time than in the deep sea, due to offshore bathymetric and climatic characteristics. In this paper, the challenge of parameterizing these offshore factors is tackled. The remote sensing data of the region are used to analyze the modification of wind-induced drift factors, and a well-suited solution is established in parameter correction mechanism for oilspill models. The novelty of the algorithm is the self-adaptive modification mechanism of the drift factors derived from the remote sensing data for the targeted sea region, in respect to empirical constants in the present models. Considering this situation, a new regional oilspill model (i4OilSpill) for the Bohai Sea is developed, which can simulate oil transformation and fate processes by Eulerian-Lagrangian methodology. The forecasting accuracy of the proposed model is proven by the validation results in the comparison between model simulation and subsequent satellite observations on the Penglai 19-3 oilspill accident. The performance of the model parameter correction mechanism is evaluated by comparing with the real spilledoil position extracted from ASAR images.

@@ In his June remarks from the Oval Office,U.S. President Barack Obama called the Gulf of Mexico oilspill "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced." But his administration sure didn't act like it. Instead the federal government responded to the crisis in the gulf with ineptitude and inattention.

We build on previous work to construct a comprehensive database of shoreline oiling exposure from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill by compiling field and remotely-sensed datasets to support oil exposure and injury quantification. We compiled a spatial database of shoreline segments with attributes summarizing habitat, oiling category and timeline. We present new simplified oil exposure classes for both beaches and coastal wetland habitats derived from this database integrating both intensity and persistence of oiling on the shoreline over time. We document oiling along 2113km out of 9545km of surveyed shoreline, an increase of 19% from previously published estimates and representing the largest marine oilspill in history by length of shoreline oiled. These data may be used to generate maps and calculate summary statistics to assist in quantifying and understanding the scope, extent, and spatial distribution of shoreline oil exposure as a result of the DWH incident.

The National Academy of Sciences estimate 1.7 to 8.8 million tons of oil are released into global waters every year. The effects of these spills include dead wildlife, oil covered marshlands and contaminated water. Deepwater horizon cost approximately $50 billion and severely challenged response capabilities. In such large spills optimizing a coordinated response is a particular challenge. This challenge can be met in a revolutionary new way by using an objectively optimized Cyber Physical Decision Making System (CPS) for rapid response products and a framework for objectively optimized decision-making in an uncertain environment. The CPS utilizes machine learning for the processing of the massive real-time streams of Big Data from comprehensive hyperspectral remote sensing acquired by a team of low-cost robotic aerial vehicles, providing a real-time aerial view and stream of hyperspectral imagery from the near UV to the thermal infrared, and a characterization of oil thickness, oil type and oil weathering. The objective decision making paradigm is modeled on the human brain and provides the optimal course trajectory for response vessels to achieve the most expeditious cleanup of oilspills using the available resources. In addition, oilspill cleanups often involve surface oil burns that can lead to air quality issues. The aerial vehicles comprehensively characterize air quality in real-time, streaming location, temperature, pressure, humidity, the abundance of 6 criterion pollutants (O3, CO, NO, NO2, SO2, and H2S) and the full size distribution of airborne particulates. This CPS can be readily applied to other systems in agriculture, water conversation, monitoring of stream quality, air quality, diagnosing risk of wild fires, etc..

Liquid pipeline codes generally stipulate placement of block valves along liquid transmission pipelines such as on each side of major river crossings where environmental hazards could cause or are foreseen to potentially cause serious consequences. Codes, however, do not stipulate any requirement for block valve spacing for low vapour pressure petroleum transportation, nor for remote pipeline valve operations to reduce spills. A review of pipeline codes for valve requirement and spill limitation in high consequence areas is thus presented along with a criteria for an acceptable spill volume that could be caused by pipeline leak/full rupture. A technique for deciding economically and technically effective pipeline block valve automation for remote operation to reduce oilspilled and control of hazards is also provided. In this review, industry practice is highlighted and application of the criteria for maximum permissible oilspill and the technique for deciding valve automation thus developed, as applied to ORSUB pipeline is presented. ORSUB is one of the three initially selected pipelines that have been studied. These pipelines represent about 14% of the total length of petroleum transmission lines operated by PETROBRAS Transporte S.A. (TRANSPETRO) in Brazil. Based on the implementation of valve motorization on these three pipeline, motorization of block valves for remote operation on the remaining pipelines is intended, depending on the success of these implementations, on historical records of failure and appropriate ranking. (author)

In the last 15 years, the detection of oilspills by satellite means has been moved from experimental to operational. Actually, what is really changed is the satellite image availability. From the late 1990's, in the age of "no data" we have moved forward 15 years to the age of "Sentinels" with an abundance of data. Either large accident related to offshore oil exploration and production activity or illegal discharges from tankers, oil on the sea surface is or can be now regularly monitored, over European Waters. National and transnational organizations (i.e. European Maritime Safety Agency's 'CleanSeaNet' Service) are routinely using SAR imagery to detect oil due to it's all weather, day and night imaging capability. However, all these years the scientific methodology on the detection remains relatively constant. From manual analysis to fully automatic detection methodologies, no significant contribution has been published in the last years and certainly none has dramatically changed the rules of the detection. On the contrary, although the overall accuracy of the methodology is questioned, the four main classification steps (dark area detection, features extraction, statistic database creation, and classification) are continuously improving. In recent years, researchers came up with the use of polarimetric SAR data for oilspill detection and characterizations, although utilization of Pol-SAR data for this purpose still remains questionable due to lack of verified dataset and low spatial coverage of Pol-SAR data. The present paper is trying to point out the drawbacks of the oilspill detection in the last years and focus on the bottlenecks of the oilspill detection methodologies. Also, solutions on the basis of data availability, management and analysis are proposed. Moreover, an ideal detection system is discussed regarding satellite image and in situ observations using different scales and sensors.

Oilspills caused by maritime transport of petroleum products are still an important source of ocean pollution, especially in main production areas and along major transport routes. We here provide a historical and geographic analysis of the major oilspills (>700 tonnes) since 1960. Spills were rec

Oilspills caused by maritime transport of petroleum products are still an important source of ocean pollution, especially in main production areas and along major transport routes. We here provide a historical and geographic analysis of the major oilspills (>700 tonnes) since 1960. Spills were

This study examined the extent of oil weathering at the Exxon Valdez oilspill (EVOS) sites and estimated the bioremediation potential for shoreline segments by examining the depletion of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) relative to an estimated applicability threshold of 70 per cent. The distribution of oil was examined by location and current ratios of nitrogen and non-polar oil in order to assess if biodegradation rates were nutrient-limited. The impact of sequestration on the effectiveness of bioremediation was also studied. Results of the study showed that the EVOS residues are patchy and infrequently found on sites that were heavily oiled in 1989. Only 0.4 per cent of the oil originally stranded in 1989 remained. The remaining EVOS residues are sequestered under boulder and cobble armour in areas with limited contact with flowing water. The study also showed that concentrations of nitrogen and dissolved oxygen in pore waters within strata adjacent to the sequestered oil can support biodegradation. Most remaining EVOS residues are highly weathered and biodegraded. It was concluded that nutrients added to the shorelines are unlikely to effectively contact the sequestered oil. 31 refs., 2 tabs., 14 figs.

This paper presents the architectural design of OSIMS, an OilSpill Information Management System, which is an integrated information management tool that consists of an object-relational database management system, an adaptive decision support system, an advanced visualization system (AVS) and a geographic information system (GIS). OSIMS will handle large and diverse databases of environmental, ecological, geographical, engineering, and regulatory information and will be used for risk analysis and contingency planning.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill (DWH) was the largest environmental disaster and response effort in United States history, with nearly 800 million liters of crude oilspilled. Vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico were contaminated with oil, including deep ocean communities and over 1...

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill was the largest environmental disaster and response effort in U.S. history, with nearly 800 million liters of crude oilspilled. Vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico were contaminated with oil, including deep-ocean communities and over 1,600 kilo...

Through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts with Marshall Space Flight Center, Micro-Bac International Inc., of Round Rock, Texas, developed a phototrophic cell for water purification in space. Inside the cell: millions of photosynthetic bacteria. Micro-Bac proceeded to commercialize the bacterial formulation it developed for the SBIR project. The formulation is now used for the remediation of wastewater systems and waste from livestock farms and food manufacturers. Strains of the SBIR-derived bacteria also feature in microbial solutions that treat environmentally damaging oilspills, such as that resulting from the catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

IVL has compiled a list of the international usage of oilspill dispersants and presents the technical limitations with the use of such agents as well as the biological effects of these chemical products. IVL, has also conducted an analysis of the pros and cons to using dispersants against oilspills in waters and has applied this with a risk assessment of chemical methods to combat oilspills in the Kattegat and Skagerrak and the Baltic Sea.

gasoline/ ethanol mixes (such as E85) may pose significant spill threats, but they have yet to be fully evaluated. For example, biodiesel may be found...is unlimited. ii 1. Report No. CG-D-07-12 2. Government Accession Number 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. 4. Title and Subtitle OIL AND...VALDEZ spill and called for upgrades in oilspill response strategies and technology. Subsequently, Title VII of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90

A pipe rupture during unloading led to a spillage of 350-700 tonnes of Caño Limon, a light sweet crude oil, into San Vicente Bay in 2007. Initial clean-up methods removed the majority of the oil from the sandy beaches although some oil remained on the rocky shores. It was necessary for the responsible party to clean the spilledoil even though at this location there were already crude oil hydrocarbons from previous industrial activity. A biosolvent based on vegetable oil derivatives was used to solubilise the remaining oil and a statistical approach to source apportionment was used to determine the efficacy of the cleaning. Sediment and contaminated rock samples were taken prior to cleaning and again at the same locations two days after application of the biosolvent. The oil was extracted using a modified USEPA Method 3550B. The alkanes were quantified together with oil biomarkers on a GC-MS. The contribution that Caño Limon made to the total oil hydrocarbons was calculated from a Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis using Caño Limon crude oil as the source. By the time the biosolvent was applied, there had already been some attenuation of the oil with all alkanes oil in this case and the contribution that Caño Limon made to the total oil ranged from 0% to 74%. The total hydrocarbon concentrations were lower after cleaning indicating an efficacy of 90% although the reduction in Caño Limon oil was smaller. This was sufficient to make further remediation unnecessary.

Locating oil in marine and terrestrial environments is a daunting task. There are commercially available off the shelf (COTS) sensors with a wide field-of-view (FOV) which can be used to map the overall extent of the spill. These generic sensors, however, lack the specificity required to positively identify oil and related products. The problem is exacerbated along beach and shoreline environments where a variety of organic and inorganic substrates are present. One sensor that can detect and classify oil in these environments is the laser fluorosensor. Laser fluorosensors have been under development by several agencies around the world for the past two decades. Environment Canada has been involved with laser fluorosensor development since the early 1990s. The prototype system was known as the Laser Environmental Airborne Fluorosensor (LEAF). The LEAF has recently been modified to provide real-time oilspill detection and classification. Fluorescence spectra are collected and analyzed at the rate of 100 Hz. Geo-referenced maps showing the locations of oil contamination are produced in real-time onboard the aircraft. While the LEAF has proven to be an excellent prototype sensor and a good operational tool, it has some deficiencies when it comes to oilspill response operations. A consortium including Environment Canada and the Minerals Management Service has recently funded the development of a new fluorosensor, called the Scanning Laser Environmental Airborne Fluorosensor (SLEAF). The SLEAF was designed to detect and map oil in shoreline environments where other non-specific sensors experience difficulty. Oil tends to pile up in narrow bands along the high tide line on beaches. A nadir-looking, small footprint sensor such as the LEAF would have difficulty locating oil in this situation. The SLEAF employs a pair of conical scanning mirrors to direct the laser beam in a circular pattern below the aircraft. With a sampling rate of 400 Hz and real-time spectral analysis

May 20, 2010 ... The impact of the spill causes death and injury to many marine flora and fauna which ... of oilspills occurred and caused large impacts to the marine organisms and the surrounding environment, and ... spills into the sea through tanker washing and other ... Mexico is light in nature, and therefore most of the.

Previous oil containment booms have an open top that allows natural gas to escape, and have significant oil leakage due to wave action. Also, a subsea pyramid oil trap exists, but cannot move relative to moving oil plumes from deepsea oil leaks. The solution is to have large, moveable oil traps. One version floats on the sea surface and has a flexible tarp cover and a lower weighted skirt to completely entrap the floating oil and natural gas. The device must have at least three sides with boats pulling at each apex, and sonar or other system to track the slowly moving oil plume, so that the boats can properly locate the booms. The oil trap device must also have a means for removal of the oil and the natural gas. A second design version has a flexible pyramid cover that is attached by lines to ballast on the ocean floor. This is similar to fixed, metal pyramid oil capture devices in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of California. The ballast lines for the improved design, however, would have winches that can move the pyramid to always be located above the oil and gas plume. A third design is a combination of the first two. It uses a submerged pyramid to trap oil, but has no anchor and uses boats to locate the trap. It has ballast weights located along the bottom of the tarp and/or at the corners of the trap. The improved floating oil-spill containment device has a large floating boom and weighted skirt surrounding the oil and gas entrapment area. The device is triangular (or more than three sides) and has a flexible tarp cover with a raised gas vent area. Boats pull on the apex of the triangles to maintain tension and to allow the device to move to optimum locations to trap oil and gas. The gas is retrieved from a higher buoyant part of the tarp, and oil is retrieved from the floating oil layer contained in the device. These devices can be operated in relatively severe weather, since waves will break over the devices without causing oil leaking. Also, natural

is exemplified by a study of oilspills due to simulated tanker collisions in the Danish straits. It is found that the distribution of the oilspill volume per spill is well represented by an exponential distribution both in Oeresund and in Great Belt. When applied in the Poisson model, a risk profile reasonably...... close to the standard lognormal profile is obtained. Moreover, based on data pairs (volume, cost) for world wide oilspills it is inferred that the conditional distribution of the costs given the spill volume is well modeled by a lognormal distribution. By unconditioning by the exponential distribution...... of the single oilspill, a risk profile for the costs is obtained that is indistinguishable from the standard lognormal risk profile.Finally the question of formulating a public risk acceptance criterion is addressed following Ditlevsen, and it is argued that a Nature Preservation Willingness Index can...

Every year, 270,000 tonnes of oil are estimated to be spilled in the ocean by vessel operations (e.g. tank washing, leakage of lubricants) and the so called operational spills are typically associated with small volumes and high occurrence rate. Vessel-related accidental spills (e.g. collisions, explosions) seldom occur and usually involve high volumes of oil, accounting for about 100,000 tonnes/year. The occurrence of accidental spills and their impacts have been well documented in the available literature. On the other hand, occurrence rates of operational spills and the effects they have on the marine and coastal environments remain very uncertain due to insufficient sampling effort and methodological limitations. Trying to foresee when and where an oilspill will occur in a certain area, its characteristics and impacts is, at present, impossible. Oilspill risk assessments (OSRAs) have been employed in several parts of the globe in order to deal with such uncertainties and protect the marine environment. In the present work, we computed the oilspill risk applying ensemble oilspill simulations following an ISO-31000 compliant OSRA methodology (Sepp Neves et al. , 2015). The ensemble experiment was carried out for the Algarve coast (southern Portugal) generating a unique data set of 51,200 numerical oilspill simulations covering the main sources of uncertainties (i.e. where and when the spill will happen and oilspill model configuration). From the generated data set, the risk due to accidental and operational spills was mapped for the Algarve municipalities based on the frequency and magnitude (i.e. concentrations) of beaching events and the main sources of risk were identified. The socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of the risk were treated separately. Seasonal changes in the risk index proposed due to the variability of meteo-oceanographic variables (i.e. currents and waves) were also quantified.

Much is known about the transport and fate of oilspilled into the sea and its toxicity to exposed wildlife. Previously, however, there has been no way to quantify the probability that wildlife dispersed over the seascape would be exposed to spilledoil. Polar bears, the apical predator of the arctic, are widely dispersed near the continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean, an area also undergoing considerable hydrocarbon exploration and development. We used 15,308 satellite locations from 194 radiocollared polar bears to estimate the probability that polar bears could be exposed to hypothetical oilspills. We used a true 2 dimensional Gausian kernel density estimator, to estimate the number of bears likely to occur in each 1.00 km2 cell of a grid superimposed over near shore areas surrounding 2 oil production facilities: the existing Northstar oil production facility, and the proposed offshore site for the Liberty production facility. We estimated the standard errors of bear numbers per cell with bootstrapping. Simulated oilspill footprints for September and October, the times during which we hypothesized effects of an oil-spill would be worst, were estimated using real wind and current data collected between 1980 and 1996. We used ARC/Info software to calculate overlap (numbers of bears oiled) between simulated oil-spill footprints and polar bear grid-cell values. Numbers of bears potentially oiled by a hypothetical 5912 barrel spill (the largest spill thought probable from a pipeline breach) ranged from 0 to 27 polar bears for September open water conditions, and from 0 to 74 polar bears in October mixed ice conditions. Median numbers oiled by the 5912 barrel hypothetical spill from the Liberty simulation in September and October were 1 and 3 bears, equivalent values for the Northstar simulation were 3 and 11 bears. In October, 75% of trajectories from the 5912 barrel simulated spill at Liberty oiled 9 or fewer bears while 75% of the trajectories affected 20 or

The formation of water-in-crude oil emulsions occurs when crude oils are spilled into sea. The water-in-crude oil emulsionssignificantly change the properties of the spilled crude oils and in turn influence the choices made relating to oilspill countermeasures. Thewater-in-crude oil emulsions were characterized using various techniques in this study. The environmental scanning electron microscopyobservation of water droplets in the emulsions is also presented. It is a powerful tool in emulsion observations.

Extensive experiments with in situ incineration were performed on a desert site at the University of Arizona with very striking results. The largest incinerator, 6 feet in diameter with a 30 foot chimney, developed combustion temperatures of 3000, F, and attendant soot production approximately 1000 times less than that produced by conventional in situ burning. This soot production, in fact, is approximately 30 times less than current allowable EPA standards for incinerators and internal combustion engines. Furthermore, as a consequence of the high temperature combustion, the bum rate was established at a very high 3400 gallons per hour for this particular 6 foot diameter structure. The rudimentary design studies we have carried out relative to a seagoing 8 foot diameter incinerator have predicted that a continuous burn rate of 7000 gallons per hour is realistic. This structure was taken as a basis for operational design because it is compatible with C130 flyability, and will be inexpensive enough ($120,000 per copy) to be stored at those seaside depots throughout the US coast line in which the requisite ancillary equipments (booms, service tugs, etc.) are already deployed. The LOX experiments verified our expectations with respect to combustion of debris and various highly weathered or emulsified oils. We have concluded, however, that the use of liquid oxygen in actual beach clean up is not promising because the very high temperatures associated with this combustion are almost certain to produce environmentally deleterious effects on the beach surface and its immediately sublying structures. However, the use of liquid oxygen augmentation for shore based and flyable incinerators may still play an important role in handing the problem of accumulated debris.

The Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico was the world's largest oilspill in terms of duration and volume spilled. Clean-up operations, which involved the continuous and wide-spread use of oil dispersant at the surface and at the seabed discharge point at 1500 metres depth, gave rise to public concern about dispersant toxicity. Reports from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed little difference in acute toxicity to marine fish and invertebrate species among commonly available dispersants and between dispersed and non-dispersed Louisiana Sweet Crude. Technically, the toxicity of waterborne hydrocarbons does not vary with chemical dispersion. However, the EPA omitted any consideration of loading, and misled the public about the risks of dispersant use in oil clean-up. This study examined the chronic toxicity of dispersed oil to fish embryos. The study revealed that toxicity expressed as oil loading increases by a factor of 10 to 1000 times with dispersion, largely because 10 to 1000 times more oil enters the water column. Since the action of dispersant is on the exposure component of the risk equation, not on the potency of the toxic components of oil, then the risk of oil toxicity to fish increases an equivalent amount.

This paper reports that crude oil was spilling last week from the U.S. owned Braer tanker after the 89,000 dwt vessel ran aground on the south end of Scotland's Shetland Islands. Workers were trying to assess the extent of damage to the tanker, shoreline, and wildlife after the January 5 accident. Braer's cargo amounted to 607,000 bbl of Norwegian oil bound for Canada. Braer loaded its cargo and sailed January 3 from Den norske stats oljeselskap AS's Mongstad, Norway, terminal with crude from Gullfaks field in the Norwegian North Sea. The $11 million shipment was destined for Ultramar Canada Inc.'s 125,000 b/d refinery at St. Romuald, Que.

Canada's production, transport, and sale of diluted bitumen (dilbit) products are expected to increase by a million barrels per day over the next decade. The anticipated growth in oil production and transport increases the risk of oilspills in aquatic areas and places greater demands on oilspill capabilities to respond to spills, which have raised stakeholder concerns. Current oilspill models only predict the transport of bitumen blends that are used in contingency plans and oilspill response strategies, rather than changes in the oil's physical properties that are relevant to spill response. We conducted weathering studies of five oil products (two conventional oils and three bitumen blends) in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' flume tank. We also considered two initial oil slick thicknesses, 4.0 mm and 7.0 mm. We found that there is a major difference in the time evolution of oil properties (density and viscosity), raising doubts on weathering models that do not consider the thickness of oil. We also developed empirical expressions for the evolution of the density and viscosity of these oil products. The findings from the 4.0 mm results were incorporated with data from the literature to provide an update on the factors to consider during the decision making for spills of diluted bitumen products. The matrix indicated that most response options, including chemical dispersants, work much more effectively within 48 hours of the initiation of weathering. After this window of opportunity closes, natural attenuation or in situ burning is the only option remaining, but containment of oil is a limiting factor for in situ burning.

This report incorporates information collected by National Consumer Law Center in telephone surveys conducted primarily from August through October, 1988. The information collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in four sections: Section I provides background information regarding the two main sources of oil overcharge funds distributed to the states since 1986. Section II provides a brief overview of NCLC's findings on the status of state allocation decisions and on specific uses of these funds. Section III of the report gives specific examples of some of the programs or projects funded with the money, with an emphasis on low-income uses. Section IV contains important notes relating to a series of nine tables.

This report incorporates information collected by National Consumer Law Center in telephone surveys conducted primarily from late January through February, 1989. The information collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in four sections: Section I provides background information regarding the two main sources of oil overcharge funds distributed to the states since 1986. Section II provides a brief overview of NCLC's findings on the status of state allocation decisions and on specific uses of these funds. Section III of the report gives specific examples of some of the programs or projects funded with the money, with an emphasis on low-income uses. Section IV contains important notes relating to a series of nine tables.

The sources of marine oilspills are mainly from accidents of marine oil tankers or freighters, marine oil-drilling platforms, marine oil pipelines, marine oilfields, terrestrial pollution, oil-bearing atmosphere, and offshore oil production equipment. It is concluded upon analysis that there are two main reasons for marine oilspills: (I) The motive for huge economic benefits of oil industry owners and oil shipping agents far surpasses their sense of ecological risks. (II) Marine ecological safety has not become the main concern of national security. Oilspills are disasters because humans spare no efforts to get economic benefits from oil. The present paper draws another conclusion that marine ecological damage caused by oilspills can be roughly divided into two categories: damage to marine resource value (direct value) and damage to marine ecosystem service value (indirect value). Marine oilspills cause damage to marine biological, fishery, seawater, tourism and mineral resources to various extents, which contributes to the lower quality and value of marine resources.

The sources of marine oilspills are mainly from accidents of marine oil tankers or freighters, marine oil-drilling platforms, marine oil pipelines, marine oilfields, terrestrial pollution, oil-bearing atmosphere, and offshore oil production equipment. It is concluded upon analysis that there are two main reasons for marine oilspills: (Ⅰ) The motive for huge economic benefits of oil Industry owners and oil shipping agents far surpasses their sense of ecological risks. (Ⅱ) Marine ecological safety has not become the main concern of national security. Oilspills are disasters because humans spare no efforts to get economic benefits from oil. The present paper draws another conclusion that marine ecological damage caused by oilspills can be roughly divided into two categories: damage to marine resource value (direct value) and damage to marine ecosystem service value (indirect value). Marine oilspills cause damage to marine biological, fishery, seawater, tourism and mineral resources to various extents, which contributes to the lower quality and value of marine resources.

Full Text Available The Exxon Valdez spill is broadly perceived as an environmental catastrophe. However, expected catastrophic declines in the region's sea otter population cannot be demonstrated, not because they didn't occur but because the necessary information is lacking. Furthermore, efforts to rehabilitate oiled sea otters following the spill were extremely expensive and ineffective. Some improvements are possible with better planning. However, post-spill capture and rehabilitation probably can not be used to substantially reduce sea otter losses from future spills, and the use of such measures to conserve populations is unrealistic.

Oilspill on the water bodies has adverse effects on coastal and marine ecology. Oilspill contingency planning is of utmost importance in order to plan for mitigation and remediation of the oceanic oilspill. Remote sensing technologies are used for monitoring the oilspills on the ocean and coastal region. Airborne and satellite sensors such as optical, infrared, ultraviolet, radar and microwave sensors are available for remote surveillance of the ocean. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is used most extensively for oil-spill monitoring because of its capability to operate during day/night and cloud-cover condition. This study detects the possible oilspill regions on fully polarimetric Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle - Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) images. The UAVSAR image is decomposed using Cloude-Pottier polarimetric decomposition technique to obtain entropy and alpha parameters. In addition, other polarimetric features such as co-polar correlation and degree of polarization are obtained for the UAVSAR images. These features are used to with fuzzy logic based classification to detect oilspill on the SAR images. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Oil release into the ocean may affect marine ecosystems and cause environmental pollution. Thus, oilspill detection and identification becomes critical important. Characterized by synoptic view over large regions, remote sensing has been proved to be a reliable tool for oilspill detection. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery shows returned signal that clearly distinguish oil from oil-free surface under optimal wind conditions, which makes it the most frequent used remote sensing technique in oilspill detection. Algorithms of automatic oilspill detection has already been developed for different SAR sensors, including RADARSAT and ENVISAT. In this study, we want to apply automatic oilspill detection algorithms on TerraSAR-X data which is previously developed for ASAR data. The applied methodology includes two steps as segmentation and classification. First segmentation algorithms compiled by C# have been applied under a Bayesian framework adopting a multi-level logistic. After segmentation different classification methods such as feature selection, filter, and embedded selection have been applied. As a result the used classifiers for oilspill detection will be compared, and the complete processing chain will be evaluated.

This paper tests the adequacy of using the lattice Boltzmann method in large-scale oilspill modelling, such as the Lebanon oilspill. Several numerical experiments were performed in order to select the most appropriate lattice and to decide between the single- and two-relaxation time models. Large-scale oilspills require simulations with short computational times. In order to speed up the computation and preserve adequate accuracy of the model, five different flux limiting interpolation techniques were compared and evaluated. The model was validated on the Lebanon oilspill with regard to the oil-slick position and concentrations in the sea, and the beaching area on the coast. Good agreement with satellite images of the slick and field data on beaching was achieved. The main advantages of the applied method are the capability of simulating very low oil concentrations and computational times that are by an order of magnitude shorter compared to similar models.

Remote sensing is becoming an increasingly important tool for the effective direction of oilspill countermeasures. Cleanup personnel have recognized that remote sensing can increase spill cleanup efficiency. It has long been recognized that there is no one sensor which is capable of detecting oil and related petroleum products in all environments and spill scenarios. There are sensors which possess a wide field-of- view and can therefore be used to map the overall extent of the spill. These sensors, however lack the capability to positively identify oil and related products, especially along complicated beach and shoreline environments where several substrates are present. The laser-based sensors under development by the Emergencies Science Division of Environment Canada are designed to fill specific roles in oilspill response. The scanning laser environmental airborne fluorosensor (SLEAF) is being developed to detect and map oil and related petroleum products in complex marine and shoreline environments where other non-specific sensors experience difficulty. The role of the SLEAF would be to confirm or reject suspected oil contamination sites that have been targeted by the non-specific sensors. This confirmation will release response crews from the time-consuming task of physically inspecting each site, and direct crews to sites that require remediation. The laser ultrasonic remote sensing of oil thickness (LURSOT) sensor will provide an absolute measurement of oil thickness from an airborne platform. There are presently no sensors available, either airborne or in the laboratory which can provide an absolute measurement of oil thickness. This information is necessary for the effective direction of spill countermeasures such as dispersant application and in-situ burning. This paper describes the development of laser-based airborne oilspill remote sensing instrumentation at Environment Canada and identifies the anticipated benefits of the use of this technology

Managing oilspill residues washing onto sandy beaches is a common worldwide environmental problem. In this study, we have analyzed the first-arrival oilspill residues collected from two Gulf of Mexico (GOM) beach systems following two recent oilspills: the 2014 Galveston Bay (GB) oilspill, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill. This is the first study to provide field observations and chemical characterization data for the 2014 GB oilspill. Here we compare the physical and chemical characteristics of GB oilspill samples with DWH oilspill samples and present their similarities and differences. Our field observations indicate that both oilspills had similar shoreline deposition patterns; however, their physical and chemical characteristics differed considerably. We highlight these differences, discuss their implications, and interpret GB data in light of lessons learned from previously published DWH oilspill studies. These analyses are further used to assess the long-term fate of GB oilspill residues and their potential environmental impacts.

Full Text Available Managing oilspill residues washing onto sandy beaches is a common worldwide environmental problem. In this study, we have analyzed the first-arrival oilspill residues collected from two Gulf of Mexico (GOM beach systems following two recent oilspills: the 2014 Galveston Bay (GB oilspill, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH oilspill. This is the first study to provide field observations and chemical characterization data for the 2014 GB oilspill. Here we compare the physical and chemical characteristics of GB oilspill samples with DWH oilspill samples and present their similarities and differences. Our field observations indicate that both oilspills had similar shoreline deposition patterns; however, their physical and chemical characteristics differed considerably. We highlight these differences, discuss their implications, and interpret GB data in light of lessons learned from previously published DWH oilspill studies. These analyses are further used to assess the long-term fate of GB oilspill residues and their potential environmental impacts.

The grounding of the Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska in the spring of 1989 resulted in the release of 258,000 barrels of Alaska North Slope crude oil into the marine environment. Nearly 800 km of shoreline were oiled to some degree. There was an unprecedented oilspill cleanup effort following the spill. The shoreline surveys of the spill zone were synthesized in this paper in an effort to demonstrate the relationship between shoreline type and persistence of subsurface oil (SSO) residues. Shoreline surveys of surface and SSO indicate rapid initial oil loss with a decline from about 800 linear km of PWS shoreline in 1989 to about 10 km of oiled shoreline in 1992. The period of rapid loss was attributed to natural physical process, biodegradation and cleanup activities that removed accessible spill remnants from shorelines. This was followed by a slower natural average loss rate for less accessible surface and SSO deposits of about 22 per cent per year for the period 1992-2001. This paper emphasized that shoreline type plays a key role in determining SSO persistence. The geology of PWS is complex. Many of the shorelines where SSO persists have armouring layers composed of hard, dense clasts, such as the quartzite boulders and cobblestones that can protect SSO deposits. Eighteen years after the spill, persistent SSO deposits in PWS shorelines remain protected from tidal water-washing and biodegradation by a surface boulder/cobble armour and low sediment porosity. The SSO deposits are in a physical/chemical form and location where they do not pose a health risk to intertidal biological communities and animals. The surveys continue to substantiate that remaining SSO deposits in PWS continue to degrade and go away slowly. 37 refs., 5 tabs., 7 figs.

At the request of the US EPA Oil Program Center, ERD is developing an oilspill model that focuses on fate and transport of oil components under various response scenarios. This model includes various simulation options, including the use of chemical dispersing agents on oil sli...

South Africa has, over the years, experienced a number of large oilspill incidents resulting from shipping casualties in coastal waters. The frequency of incidents is primarily due to the fact that South Africa is situated on a major shipping route, on the southern tip of Africa, where high concentrations of vessels converge at the major turning points. Storm conditions off the Cape coast result in some significant oilspills, the largest being that of the Castillo de Bellver in 1983. This paper describes South Africa` oilspill response strategy, and outlines in detail the Apollo Sea oilspill of 1994 caused by the Castillo de Bellver accident. The clean up operations included the recovery and relocation of 8,500 endangered penguins, the use of oilspill dispersants on the ocean surface, and the clean up of a 22 mile stretch of impacted coastline. It is still too early to ascertain the long-term implications of the oiling on the penguin population. An assessment of the long-term impact is still underway. A study of the impact on inter- and sub-tidal organisms found that there was not a significant impact on these organisms in the affected areas, considered to be due to the relatively low toxicity of the type of oil involved, and that it had been weathered at sea for several days prior to it reaching the shore. A number of deficiencies in oilspill contingency plans were identified as needing further attention. (author).

Criteria for discriminating between radar signatures of oil films and oil-spill look-alikes visible on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of the sea surface are critically reviewed. The main challenge in oilspill detection using SAR is to discriminate between mineral oil films and biogenic slicks originating from secretions (exudations) of biota in the water column. The claim that oilspill detection algorithms based on measuring 1) the reduction of the normalized radar cross section (NRCS), 2) the differences in the geometry and shape of the surface films, and 3) the differences in texture have a high success rate is questioned. Furthermore, it is questioned that polarimetric SAR data are of great help for discriminating between mineral oil films and biogenic slicks. However, differences in the statistical behavior of the radar backscattering is expected due to the fact that, other than monomolecular biogenic surface films, mineral oil films can form multi-layers.

@@ Chinese emergency services carried out their largest ever exercise in early June to tackle an oilspill in the Bohai Sea to test their ability to protect the ocean environment. The drill involved a scenario in which a 10,000-ton oil tanker exploded and spilt 500 tons of oil.Soon after the oil tanker Tianpeng "exploded", a fireboat arrived to fight the fire and a helicopter hovered above to spread chemicals to control oilspill, followed by more vessels and another helicopter.

Full Text Available This article is concerned with the investigation of basin peat sorption capacity in Tomsk field. Experimental results showed the thermal treatment efficiency of sorbent production for oilspill response.

Full Text Available The anatase phase of titania is being considered for use in oilspill remediation due to its high photocatalytic efficiency and its activity under a wide range of environmental conditions.

This report analyses information status and research needs in relation to potential environmental impacts of oilspills (offshore and onshore) in Greenland. The report assesses potential effects and potential mitigation and monitoring measures. Information gaps are identified and a number...

This report analyses information status and research needs in relation to potential environmental impacts of oilspills (offshore and onshore) in Greenland. The report assesses potential effects and potential mitigation and monitoring measures. Information gaps are identified and a number...

Oilspills, for example those due to tanker collisions and groundings or platform accidents, can have huge adverse impacts on marine systems. The impact of an oilspill at sea depends on a number of factors, such as spill volume, type of oilspilled, weather conditions, and proximity to environmenta

Oilspills, for example those due to tanker collisions and groundings or platform accidents, can have huge adverse impacts on marine systems. The impact of an oilspill at sea depends on a number of factors, such as spill volume, type of oilspilled, weather conditions, and proximity to

A response alternative for floating vegetable oilspills based on sedimentation of negatively buoyant oil-mineral aggregrates followed by anaerobic biodegradation in the sediments is under investigation. Sedimentation of floating canola oil by interaction with montmorillonite wa...

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster resulted in crude oil contamination along the Gulf coast in sensitive estuaries. Toxicity from exposure to crude oil can affect populations of fish that live or breed in oiled habitats as seen following the Exxon Valdez oilspill. In an ongoing study of the effects of Deepwater Horizon crude oil on fish, Gulf killifish ( Fundulus grandis ) were collected from an oiled site (Grande Terre, LA) and two reference locations (coastal MS and AL) and monitored for measures of exposure to crude oil. Killifish collected from Grande Terre had divergent gene expression in the liver and gill tissue coincident with the arrival of contaminating oil and up-regulation of cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) protein in gill, liver, intestine, and head kidney for over one year following peak landfall of oil (August 2011) compared to fish collected from reference sites. Furthermore, laboratory exposures of Gulf killifish embryos to field-collected sediments from Grande Terre and Barataria Bay, LA, also resulted in increased CYP1A and developmental abnormalities when exposed to sediments collected from oiled sites compared to exposure to sediments collected from a reference site. These data are predictive of population-level impacts in fish exposed to sediments from oiled locations along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

The blowout on the Ekofisk field in the North Sea in 1977 initiated R&D efforts in Norway focusing on improving oilspill contingency in general and more specifically on weathering processes and modeling drift and spreading of oilspills. Since 1978, approximately 40 experimental oilspills have been performed under controlled conditions in open and ice covered waters in Norway. The importance of these experimental oilspills for understanding oilspill behavior, development of oilspill and response models, and response technologies are discussed here. The large progress within oilspill R&D in Norway since the Ekofisk blowout has been possible through a combination of laboratory testing, basin studies, and experimental oilspills. However, it is the authors' recommendation that experimental oilspills still play an important role as a final validation for the extensive R&D presently going on in Norway, e.g. deep-water releases of oil and gas.

Remote sensing is becoming an increasingly important tool for the effective direction of oilspill countermeasures. Cleanup personnel have recognized that remote sensing can increase spill cleanup efficiency. The general public expects that the government and/or the spiller know the location and the extent of the contamination. The Emergencies Science Division (ESD) of Environment Canada, is responsible for remote sensing during oilspill emergencies along Canada's three coastlines, extensive inland waterways, as well as over the entire land mass. In addition to providing operational remote sensing, ESD conducts research into the development of airborne oilspill remote sensors, including the Scanning Laser Environmental Airborne Fluorosensor (SLEAF) and the Laser Ultrasonic Remote SEnsing of Oil Thickness (LURSOT) sensor. It has long been recognized that there is not one sensor or 'magic bullet' which is capable of detecting oil and related petroleum products in all environments and spill scenarios. There are sensors which possess a wide filed-of-view and can therefore be used to map the overall extent of the spill. These sensors, however lack the specificity required to positively identify oil and related products. This is even more of a problem along complicated beach and shoreline environments where several substrates are present. The specific laser- based sensors under development by Environment Canada are designed to respond to special roles in oilspill response. In particular, the SLEAF is being developed to unambiguously detect and map oil and related petroleum products in complicated marine and shoreline environments where other non-specific sensors experience difficulty. The role of the SLEAF would be to confirm or reject suspected oil contamination sites that have been targeted by the non- specific sensors. This confirmation will release response crews from the time consuming task of physically inspecting each site, and direct crews to sites that

Since March of 1986, state governments have received roughly $3.3 billion in funds obtained by the federal government through two major cases, based on price overcharges committed by numerous oil companies during the period of price controls, between 1973 and 1981. Furthermore, about another $1 billion may still be collected from oil companies, with roughly 1/2 to be distributed to the states (and the other 1/2 to the federal government), over the next 5 to 10 years. The role of state government is to allocate the funds, within the specific case guidelines, to new or existing energy programs, in a way which is designed to benefit (or provide restitution to) the class or classes of purchasers who bore the burden of the overcharges. This report incorporates information collected by NCLC in telephone surveys conducted from October through November 1989. As with the reports under the previous grant, the information we collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in the state-by-state narrative summary section and in a series of tables at the end of the report.

Full Text Available Emergency oil and oil products spills represent a great danger to the environment, including ecosystems, and to the population. New problems of such dangerous spills and methods of early detection are discussed in this paper. It is proposed to conduct assessment of biological hazards of such spills on the basis of data on the distribution of individual oil hydrocarbons within the column of the water body and computer predictions of their toxicity. Oil radioactivity, which is associated with uranium and thorium, is seen as the important aspect of the oilspill danger, especially in watercourses. The need for an automated monitoring system for the early detection of oilspills in water bodies is analysed. The proposed system consists of three subsystems. The first remote sensing subsystem is based on powerful fluorescent lidars; experimental results on lidar registration of oil pollution of water are reported. The second subsystem uses a network of automatic monitoring stations with contact detectors. The third subsystem is the combined sensor system based on remote and contact technologies.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill was caused by a drilling rig explosion on 20 April 2010 that killed 11 people. It was the largest oilspill in U.S. history and presented an unprecedented threat to Gulf of Mexico marine resources. Although oil gushing to the surface diminished after the well was capped, on 15 July 2010, much remains to be known about the oil and the dispersants beneath the surface, including their trajectories and effects on marine life. A system for tracking the oil, both at the surface and at depth, was needed for mitigation efforts and ship survey guidance. Such a system was implemented immediately after the spill by marshaling numerical model and satellite remote sensing resources available from existing coastal ocean observing activities [e.g., Weisberg et al., 2009]. Analyzing this system's various strengths and weaknesses can help further improve similar systems designed for other emergency responses.

OilSpill Risk Assessments (OSRAs) are widely employed to support decision making regarding oilspill risks. This article adapts the ISO-compliant OSRA framework developed by Sepp Neves et al. (J Environ Manag 159:158-168, 2015) to estimate risks in a complex scenario where uncertainties related to the meteo-oceanographic conditions, where and how a spill could happen exist and the risk computation methodology is not yet well established (ensemble oilspill modeling). The improved method was applied to the Algarve coast, Portugal. Over 50,000 simulations were performed in 2 ensemble experiments to estimate the risks due to operational and accidental spill scenarios associated with maritime traffic. The level of risk was found to be important for both types of scenarios, with significant seasonal variations due to the the currents and waves variability. Higher frequency variability in the meteo-oceanographic variables were also found to contribute to the level of risk. The ensemble results show that the distribution of oil concentrations found on the coast is not Gaussian, opening up new fields of research on how to deal with oilspill risks and related uncertainties.

Although advances have been made in oilspill remote detection, many electro-optic sensors do not provide real-time images, do not work well under degraded visual environments, nor provide a measure of extreme oil thickness in marine environments. A joint program now exists between BSEE and NVESD that addresses these capability gaps in remote sensing of oilspills. Laboratory experiments, calibration techniques, and field tests were performed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Santa Barbara, California; and the Ohmsett Test Facility in Leonardo, New Jersey. Weathered crude oils were studied spectroscopically and characterized with LWIR, and low-light-level visible/NIR, and SWIR cameras. We designed and fabricated an oil emulsion thickness calibration cell for spectroscopic analysis and ground truth, field measurements. Digital night vision cameras provided real-time, wide-dynamic-range imagery, and were able to detect and recognize oil from full sun to partial moon light. The LWIR camera provided quantitative oil analysis (identification) for >1 mm thick crude oils both day and night. Two filtered, co-registered, SWIR cameras were used to determine whether oil thickness could be measured in real time. Spectroscopic results revealed that oil emulsions vary with location and weathered state and some oils (e.g., ANS and Santa Barbara seeps) do not show the spectral rich features from archived Deep Water Horizon hyperspectral data. Multi-sensor imagery collected during the 2015 USCG Airborne OilSpill Remote Sensing and Reporting Exercise and the design of a compact, multiband imager are discussed.

On 17 May 1993, a major oil-slick about 10 miles long and 2 miles wide, was formed about 165 km north off Bombay after the Bombay-High-Uran pipeline ruptured and estimated 3000-6000 tonnes of oil was spilled into the sea. Steps were immediately...

many different chemicals, consequently the effects of an oilspill on the ... the method is inexpensive while being efﬁcicnt and .... laboratory experiments demonstrated that the ... base line over the scan range and measuring ... scans of standards to prepare a calibration curve as ..... oil absorption”, Advanced Materials from.

A discussion of the Arctic Marine OilSpill Program organized in 1976 by the Canadian Federal Government includes: an Arctic Atlas compiled by Fenco Consultants Ltd. to give background information necessary for developing marine oilspill countermeasures for the Arctic north of 60/sup 0/ including the west Greenland coast and the Labrador shelf (geology, meteorology and oceanography, ice conditions, biology, and social factors); program in emergency transport of spill-combatting equipment; and the factors which influence the choice of conveyance, i.e., accessibility of the site, urgency for response, and quantity of material required; laboratory studies involving the release of oil under artificial sea ice in simulated ice formation and decay purposes to determine the interaction of crude oil and first-year sea ice; inability of companies and government to control a major spill in the Labrador Sea because of poor and inadequate transport facilities, communications, and navigational aids, severe environmental conditions, and logistics problems; and studies on the effects of oil-well blowouts in deep water, including formation of oil and gas hydrates, design of oil skimmers, the use of hovercraft, and specifications for an airborne multisensor system for oil detection in ice-infested waters.

From March of 1986 through early January, 1991 (when the report surveying began) state governments received $3.423 billion in funds obtained by the federal government through two major cases, based on price overcharges committed by numerous oil companies during the period of price controls, between 1973 and 1981. Furthermore, about another $1 billion may still be collected from oil companies, with roughly 1/2 to be distributed to the states (and the other 1/2 to the federal government), over the next 5 to 10 years. The role of state governments is to allocate the funds, within the specific case guidelines, to new or existing energy programs, in a way which is designed to benefit (or provide restitution to) the class or classes of purchasers who bore the burden of the overcharges. This report incorporates information collected by NCLC through telephone surveys conducted from January through March 1991. The information we collected on the status and state uses of both Exxon and Stripper Well funds is contained in the state-by-state narrative summary selection and in a series of tables at the end of the report. Each of the quarterly reports tracks final state decisions allocating use of these funds. The terms allocated'' and designated'' are used interchangeably throughout the document to mean that final state decisions have been made regarding these funds. Tracking state allocations about these funds is the only practical way for us to provide an overview of the actual status of state processes or decisions which have occurred with regard to this money. 9 tabs.

Following the enormous oilspills resulting from the 1990-91 military conflict in the Gulf, fears were expressed concerning dissipation of oil from the Gulf into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. To investigate contamination of the northern Arabian...

In case of oilspills due to disasters, one of the environmental concerns is the oil trajectories and spatial distribution. To meet these new challenges, spill response plans need to be upgraded. An important component of such a plan would be models able to simulate the behaviour of oil in terms of trajectories and spatial distribution, if accidentally released, in deep water. All these models need to be calibrated with independent observations. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that significant support to oil slick monitoring can be obtained by the synergistic use of oil drift models and remote sensing observations. Based on transport properties and weathering processes, oil drift models can indeed predict the fate of spilledoil under the action of water current velocity and wind in terms of oil position, concentration and thickness distribution. The oilspill event that occurred on 31 May 2003 in the Baltic Sea offshore the Swedish and Danish coasts is considered a case study with the aim of producing three-dimensional models of sea circulation and oil contaminant transport. The High-Resolution Limited Area Model (HIRLAM) is used for atmospheric forcing. The results of the numerical modelling of current speed and water surface elevation data are validated by measurements carried out in Kalmarsund, Simrishamn and Kungsholmsfort stations over a period of 18 days and 17 h. The oilspill model uses the current field obtained from a circulation model. Near-infrared (NIR) satellite images were compared with numerical simulations. The simulation was able to predict both the oilspill trajectories of the observed slick and thickness distribution. Therefore, this work shows how oil drift modelling and remotely sensed data can provide the right synergy to reproduce the timing and transport of the oil and to get reliable estimates of thicknesses of spilledoil to prepare an emergency plan and to assess the magnitude of risk involved in case of oilspills due

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Deepwater Horizon oilspill (also referred to as the BP oilspill) began on 20 April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. Following...

Marine oilspill has long-term harmful impact on both marine ecosystem and economics. Recently as the increase in China’s rapid economic growth, the demand for energy is increasing, leading to the high risk of marine oilspill pollution. So it is essential that we improve emergency response capacity in marine oilspill pollution and develop oilspill prediction and early warning in China. In this study, based on Lagrange tracking approach, we have developed an oilspill model. Combining with high-resolution meteorological and hydrodynamic model, the oilspill model was applied to predict the drift and diffusion processes of Dalian oilspill. The predicted results are well agreed with the analyzed synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image, and provided effective oilspill behaviour prediction to Shandong Maritime Safety Administration.

Crude oil and petroleum products are widespread water and soil pollutants resulting from marine and terrestrial spillages. International statistics of oilspill sizes for all incidents indicate that the majority of oilspills are small (less than 7 tonnes). The major accidents that happen in the oil industry contribute only a small fraction of the total oil which enters the environment. However, the nature of accidental releases is that they highly pollute small areas and have the potential to devastate the biota locally. There are several routes by which oil can get back to humans from accidental spills, e.g. through accumulation in fish and shellfish, through consumption of contaminated groundwater. Although advances have been made in the prevention of accidents, this does not apply in all countries, and by the random nature of oilspill events, total prevention is not feasible. Therefore, considerable world-wide effort has gone into strategies for minimising accidental spills and the design of new remedial technologies. This paper summarizes new knowledge as well as research and technology gaps essential for developing appropriate decision-making tools in actual spill scenarios. Since oil exploration is being driven into deeper waters and more remote, fragile environments, the risk of future accidents becomes much higher. The innovative safety and accident prevention approaches summarized in this paper are currently important for a range of stakeholders, including the oil industry, the scientific community and the public. Ultimately an integrated approach to prevention and remediation that accelerates an early warning protocol in the event of a spill would get the most appropriate technology selected and implemented as early as possible - the first few hours after a spill are crucial to the outcome of the remedial effort. A particular focus is made on bioremediation as environmentally harmless, cost-effective and relatively inexpensive technology. Greater

of oil tankers in the open sea - Washout of oil from settled areas into storm drains and direct washout to the shoreline. - Ship breaking yards, ships anchored at harbours and jetties and water sports facilities on popular beaches. - Natural... last for years. Major impacts of oilspills on fisheries and aquaculture are the smearing of nets and fish cages and the tainting of fish and shellfish, rendering them unfit for marketing. As compared to adult, which can avoid contaminated areas...

The Eulerian and Lagrangian methods for oilspill simulations are discussed. A mathematical description of the vertical movement of an oil droplet in the ocean is proposed based on the Langeven equation and the analytical test results are presented to compare the results. The results are that the buoyant effect and the vertical turbulent variations are very important mechanisms for vertical movement of oil in the water column. (Author)

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 and became the largest accidental marine oilspill in history. Oil leaked continuously between April 20th and July 15th of 2010, releasing about 780, 000m3 of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The oilspill caused extensive economical and ecological damage to the areas it reached, affecting the marine and wildlife habitats along with fishing and tourism industries. For oilspill mitigation efforts, it is important to determine the areal extent, and most recent position of the contaminated area. Satellitebased oil pollution monitoring systems are being used for monitoring and in hazard response efforts. Due to their high accuracy, frequent acquisitions, large area coverage and day-and-night operation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites are a major contributer of monitoring marine environments for oilspill detection. We developed a new algorithm for determining the extent of the oilspill from multiple SAR images, that are acquired with short temporal intervals using different sensors. Combining the multi-polarization data from Radarsat-2 (C-band), Envisat ASAR (C-band) and Alos-PALSAR (L-band) sensors, we calculate the extent of the oilspill with higher accuracy than what is possible from only one image. Short temporal interval between acquisitions (hours to days) allow us to eliminate artifacts and increase accuracy. Our algorithm works automatically without any human intervention to deliver products in a timely manner in time critical operations. Acquisitions using different SAR sensors are radiometrically calibrated and processed individually to obtain oilspill area extent. Furthermore the algorithm provides probability maps of the areas that are classified as oil slick. This probability information is then combined with other acquisitions to estimate the combined probability map for the spill.

This thesis attempts to illuminate the challenges facing Norwegian oilspill preparedness, and how these can be approached in the best possible way, with the intent to make oilspill preparedness more effectively. Organizational aspects are in focus. The research has an inductive approach. Interviews have been carried out with several companies producing services or products related to oilspill preparedness, including the three major players in the Norwegian oilspill prepared...

A comparison was made between the development of Dentalium eggs, spawned by animals, collected before and after the Amoco Cadiz oilspill. Development of eggs from animals collected before the oilspill was significantly better than development of eggs from animals collected after the oilspill. It

... National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon OilSpill and Offshore Drilling AGENCY: Department of... meeting of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon OilSpill and Offshore Drilling (the..., and mitigate the impact of, any oilspills associated with offshore drilling in the future....

... National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon OilSpill and Offshore Drilling AGENCY: Department of... meeting for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon OilSpill and Offshore Drilling (the..., and mitigate the impact of, any oilspills associated with offshore drilling in the future....

A comparison was made between the development of Dentalium eggs, spawned by animals, collected before and after the Amoco Cadiz oilspill. Development of eggs from animals collected before the oilspill was significantly better than development of eggs from animals collected after the oilspill. It

Marine environments are frequently exposed to oilspills as a result of transportation, oil drilling or fuel usage. Whereas large oilspills and their effects have been widely documented, more common and recurrent small spills typically escape attention. To fill this important gap in the assessment

... Fish and Wildlife Service DEEPWATER HORIZON OilSpill; Final Phase I Early Restoration Plan and... DEEPWATER HORIZON OilSpill (Framework Agreement), notice is hereby given that ] the Federal and State... the DEEPWATER HORIZON oilspill, which occurred on or about April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico....

This paper examines how and when newspapers, environmental nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and the government converge on environmental events. Using data on the 2010 BP OilSpill from newspaper articles in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, press releases by Greenpeace and Sierra Club, press releases by BP, Halliburton, Transocean, ExxonMobil, and Shell, and press statements by the White House Press Secretary, we examine an event's potential to trigger convergence of social and political action. By treating events as political actants, we examine arguments from the agenda-setting and social movement literatures on timing, simplicity, and visuality to understand when political actors converge. We find that convergence is related to temporal cycles but not simplicity or visuality.

Detection for oil pollution is an important part of the marine environment protection in maritime security. In order to realize all-weather, rapid and accurate oilspill area detection, infrared images of oilspill on the sea is processed on account of infrared thermal imaging's visual capacity in darkness and frog. The detection for oilspill is realized and the location as well as the area of oilspill is calculated. The prediction integrated model of oilspill spreading is established and the prediction simulation for oilspill area is realized by changing the oil varieties, environmental factors and time, etc. The results show that this simulation is accurate, fast, intuitive and simple. It has certain significance for realizing the early warning of oilspill area detection automatically, intelligently and quickly.

Scant research has focused on resilient responding to disasters such as oilspills a year or more after the event. One year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oilspill, this study assessed perceived resilience, relations between resiliency and psychological symptoms, and the degree to which self-reported resiliency was associated with reduced psychological symptoms after accounting for differences in economic impact sustained by Gulf Coast residents. Participants were 812 adults (64% women, mean age 50) of 2 Alabama coastal communities. Participants were administered a telephone survey 1-year post-spill assessing self-perceptions of impact factors (e.g., economic and social), resilience, coping, and depressive and PTSD symptoms. Most participants perceived themselves as resilient (n = 739). As expected, lower perceived resilience was associated with greater ongoing depressive and PTSD symptoms. Spill-related economic impact predicted greater depressive and PTSD symptoms; however, perceived resilience predicted significant variance in psychological symptoms after taking into account spill-related economic impact. Improving individuals' sense of resiliency may help mitigate psychosocial and mental health effects over time.

Sediment chemistry studies, undertaken as part of the long-term assessment of the Bahı´a las Minas (Panamá) oilspill, showed the unexpected persistence of the full range of aromatic hydrocarbon residues of the spilled crude oil in anoxic muds of coastal mangroves. Mangrove muds served as long-term reservoirs for chronic contamination of contiguous coastal communities for over 5 years. One result of the repeated history of oil pollution incidents along this coast was an increased proportion of dead mangrove ( Rhizophora mangle) roots in sediment cores which was related to contaminant loading and was detectable for at least 20 years after major oilspills. We suggest that this is the minimum time-scale that is to be expected for the loss of toxicity of oil trapped in muddy coastal habitats impacted by catastrophic oilspills.

Sediment chemistry studies, undertaken as part of the long-term assessment of the Bahia las Minas (Panama) oilspill, showed the unexpected persistence of the full range of aromatic hydrocarbon residues of the spilled crude oil in anoxic muds of coastal mangroves. Mangrove muds served as long-term reservoirs for chronic contamination of contiguous coastal communities for over 5 years. One result of the repeated history of oil pollution incidents along this coast was an increased proportion of dead mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) roots in sediment cores which was related to contaminant loading and was detectable for at least 20 years after major oilspills. We suggest that this is the minimum time-scale that is to be expected for the loss of toxicity of oil trapped in muddy coastal habitats impacted by catastrophic oilspills. (author)

During the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill, a wide range of gas and aerosol species were measured from an aircraft around, downwind, and away from the DWH site. Additional hydrocarbon measurements were made from ships in the vicinity. Aerosol particles of respirable sizes were on occasions a significant air quality issue for populated areas along the Gulf Coast. Yields of organic aerosol particles and emission factors for other atmospheric pollutants were derived for the sources from the spill, recovery, and cleanup efforts. Evaporation and subsequent secondary chemistry produced organic particulate matter with a mass yield of 8 ± 4% of the oil mixture reaching the water surface. Approximately 4% by mass of oil burned on the surface was emitted as soot particles. These yields can be used to estimate the effects on air quality for similar events as well as for this spill at other times without these data. Whereas emission of soot from burning surface oil was large during the episodic burns, the mass flux of secondary organic aerosol to the atmosphere was substantially larger overall. We use a regional air quality model to show that some observed enhancements in organic aerosol concentration along the Gulf Coast were likely due to the DWH spill. In the presence of evaporating hydrocarbons from the oil, NO(x) emissions from the recovery and cleanup operations produced ozone.

Through the study of the theory of oilspill model, a mathematical modeling of oilspill on the sea is developed which with the consideration of spread, diffusion, drifting and attenuation of oil slick is influenced by evaporation and emulsification factors. A model that under the effect of ocean dynamic condition of tide, wind and wave, using Monte Carlo method to simulate the movement of oil slick is established. The modeling is applied to calculate and predict pollution range of oilspill at oil quay and oil ship in Daya Bay. The prediction results have basically shown the pollution situation by emergency of oilspill on the sea.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oilspill leaked an estimated 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico , damaging the waters, shores, and...The NRDA process for the 2010 oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico will be conducted pursuant to OPA. Accordingly, this report will only address that...water), soil, sediment, ocean bottom, biota (including bird, fish, and invertebrates), and habitat (for example, marshes, mangroves , mudflats, and

This study presents a model to assess the oilspill risk in Garorim Bay in Korea, where large-scale oilspill accidents frequently occur. The oilspill risk assessment is carried out by using two factors: 1) The impact probability of the oilspill, and 2) the first impact time of the oil that has been spilt. The risk assessment is conducted for environmentally sensitive areas, such as the coastline and aquaculture farms in the Garorim Bay area. Finally, Garorim Bay is divided into six subareas, and the risks of each subarea are compared with one another to identify the subarea that is most vulnerable to an oilspill accident. These results represent an objective and comprehensive oilspill risk level for a specific region. The prediction of the oilspill spread is based on real-time sea conditions and can be improved by integrating our results, especially when sea conditions are rapidly changing.

Characterize personal exposure to airborne hydrocarbons, particularly carcinogenic benzene, during spill of two different fresh crude oils at sea. The study included 22 participants taking part in an «oil on water» field trial in the North Sea. Two types of fresh crude oils (light and heavy) were released six times over two consecutive days followed by different oilspill response methods. The participants were distributed on five boats; three open sampling boats (A, B, and C), one release ship (RS), and one oil recovery (OR) vessel. Assumed personal exposure was assessed a priori, assuming high exposure downwind and close to the oil slick (sampling boats), low exposure further downwind (100-200 m) and upwind from the oil slick (main deck of RS and OR vessel), and background exposure indoors (bridge of RS/OR vessel). Continuous measurements of total volatile organic compounds in isobutylene equivalents were performed with photoionization detectors placed in all five boats. Full-shift personal exposure to benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, naphthalene, and n-hexane was measured with passive thermal desorption tubes. Personal measurements of benzene, averaged over the respective sample duration, on Day 1 showed that participants in the sampling boats (A, B, and C) located downwind and close to the oil slick were highest exposed (0.14-0.59 ppm), followed by participants on the RS main deck (0.02-0.10 ppm) and on the bridge (0.004-0.03 ppm). On Day 2, participants in sampling boat A had high benzene exposure (0.87-1.52 ppm) compared to participants in sampling boat B (0.01-0.02 ppm), on the ships (0.06-0.10 ppm), and on the bridge (0.004-0.01 ppm). Overall, the participants in the sampling boats had the highest exposure to all of the compounds measured. The light crude oil yielded a five times higher concentration of total volatile organic compounds in air in the sampling boats (max 510 ppm) than the heavy crude oil (max 100 ppm) but rapidly declined to

The purpose of this chapter is not to provide an extensive review of the literature on oilspill bioremediation. For that, the reader is referred to Swannell et al. (1996), who have conducted the most exhaustive review I have yet to come across. Other reviews are also av...

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the British Petroleum Gulf OilSpill on resource change, psychological stress, and resilience for business owners, residents, and workers in Escambia County, Florida. This study was based on Hobfoll's (1988, 1989) Conservation of Resources theory. All business owners, residents, and…

Full Text Available An innovative forecasting system of the coastal marine circulation has been implemented in the Bonifacio Strait area, between Corsica and Sardinia, using a numerical approach to facilitate the rapid planning and coordination of remedial actions to oilspill emergencies at sea by local authorities. Downscaling and nesting techniques from regional to coastal scale and a 3-D hydrodynamic numerical model, coupled with a wind wave model, are the core of the integrated Bonifacio Strait system. Such a system is capable to predict the sea state and the dispersion of hydrocarbon spills in the area, providing the forecasts on oilspills through an easy-to-use graphical user interface. Scenarios and risk maps have been created to identify the most risky areas to oil pollution in relation to vessels traffic. The backward investigation technique has been exploited to trace the most probable area from which pollution was generated. The system has been operationally verified in January 2011 when an oilspill occurred in the area. Finally output data are daily released providing forecasting services to end-users through the web.

After the April 20th explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the world witnessed one of the worst oilspill catastrophes in global history. In an effort to mitigate the disaster, the U.S. government moved quickly to establish a unified command for responding to the spill. Some of the command's most immediate needs were to track the movement of the surface oil slick, establish a baseline measurement of pre-oil coastal ecosystem conditions, and assess potential air quality and water hazards related to the spill. To help address these needs and assist the Federal response to the disaster, NASA deployed several of its airborne and satellite research sensors to collect an unprecedented amount of remotely-sensed data over the Gulf of Mexico region. Although some of these data were shared with the public via the media, much of the NASA data on the disaster was not well known to the Gulf Coast community. The need existed to inform the general public about these datasets and help improve understanding about how NASA's science research was contributing to oilspill response and recovery. With its extensive experience conducting community-oriented remote sensing projects and close ties to organizations around Gulf of Mexico, the NASA DEVELOP National Program stood in a unique position to meet this need.

An innovative forecasting system of the coastal marine circulation has been implemented in the Bonifacio Strait area, between Corsica and Sardinia, using a numerical approach to facilitate the rapid planning and coordination of remedial actions to oilspill emergencies at sea by local authorities. Downscaling and nesting techniques from regional to coastal scale and a 3-D hydrodynamic numerical model, coupled with a wind wave model, are the core of the integrated Bonifacio Strait system. Such a system is capable to predict the sea state and the dispersion of hydrocarbon spills in the area, providing the forecasts on oilspills through an easy-to-use graphical user interface. Scenarios and risk maps have been created to identify the most risky areas to oil pollution in relation to vessels traffic. The backward investigation technique has been exploited to trace the most probable area from which pollution was generated. The system has been operationally verified in January 2011 when an oilspill occurred in the area. Finally output data are daily released providing forecasting services to end-users through the web.

The Exxon Valdez oilspill occurred in March 1989 in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and was one of the worst environmental disasters on record in the United States. Despite long-term data collection over the nearly three decades since the spill, tremendous uncertainty remains as to how significantly the spill affected fishery resources. Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) and some wild Pacific salmon populations (Oncorhynchus spp.) in Prince William Sound declined in the early 1990s, and have not returned to the population sizes observed in the 1980s. Discerning if, or how much of, this decline resulted from the oilspill has been difficult because a number of other physical and ecological drivers are confounded temporally with the spill; some of these drivers include environmental variability or changing climate regimes, increased production of hatchery salmon in the region, and increases in populations of potential predators. Using data pre- and post-spill, we applied time-series methods to evaluate support for whether and how herring and salmon productivity has been affected by each of five drivers: (1) density dependence, (2) the EVOS event, (3) changing environmental conditions, (4) interspecific competition on juvenile fish, and (5) predation and competition from adult fish or, in the case of herring, humpback whales. Our results showed support for intraspecific density-dependent effects in herring, sockeye, and Chinook salmon, with little overall support for an oilspill effect. Of the salmon species, the largest driver was the negative impact of adult pink salmon returns on sockeye salmon productivity. Herring productivity was most strongly affected by changing environmental conditions; specifically, freshwater discharge into the Gulf of Alaska was linked to a series of recruitment failures-before, during, and after EVOS. These results highlight the need to better understand long terms impacts of pink salmon on food webs, as well as the interactions between

Seabirds are vulnerable to oil pollution, particularly in cold-water regions. We investigated the response of small spills (oil production operations Environment Canada requested monitoring and mitigation of small spills potentially impacting seabird populations; suggestions supported by two independent reviews. An industry spill response plan states that operators would collect systematic observations on spills and deploy countermeasures where possible. Operators' spill reports were obtained under an Access to Information request. There were 220 daytime spills with sheens (out of 381 spills; 1997-2010). Of these, six reported time to oil dispersion and eleven the presence or absence of seabirds. Industry self-reporting has not permitted an evaluation of the impact of chronic oilspills on seabirds. We recommend that independent observers be placed on platforms to systematically collect data on spills and seabirds.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether residents in the vicinity of the Sea Empress tanker spill suffered an increase in self reported physical and psychological symptoms, which might be attributable to exposure to crude oil. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study; postal questionnaire including demographic details, a symptom checklist, beliefs about health effects of oil and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression and SF-36 mental health scales. SETTING: Populations living in four coastal tow...

The results of a series of studies conducted to determine the practicability and feasibility of using dispersants to mitigate the impact of an oilspill on the environment are described. The method of approach is holistic in that it combines the physical, chemical, microbial and macro-fauna response to a spill treated with dispersants and compares this with spills that are left untreated. The program integrates mathematical, laboratory, meso-scale (three 20 foot high by three feet in diameter tanks, in-situ experiments and analyses to determine if the use of dispersants is an effective oilspill control agent. In summary, it appears viable to use dispersants as determined on a case by case basis. The case for using dispersants has to be based on whether or not their use will mitigate the environmental impact of the spill. In the case of an open ocean spill that is being driven into a rich inter-tidal community, the use of dispersants could greatly reduce the environmental impact. Even in the highly productive George's Bank area at the height of the cod spawning season, the impact of the use of dispersants is well within the limits of natural variability when the threshold toxicity level is assumed to be as low as 100 ppB, a level which is often found in the open ocean. Thus, it appears that dispersants can and should be used when it is evident that their use will mitigate the impacts of the spill. Their use in areas where there is poor circulation and therefore little possibility of rapid dilution is more questionable and should be a subject of future studies.

Many oil and HNS spill accidents occur in the waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula because Korea is one of the biggest trading partners in the world. In this study, we analyzed the oil and HNS spill accidents that occurred between 1994 and 2005 and created risk matrices to assess these accidents. The worst scenarios of future oil and HNS spill accidents were established, and the maximum spill amounts were estimated using historic accident data and a correlation from IPIECA. The maximum spill amounts are estimated to be between 77,000 and 10,000 tons of oil and HNS, respectively. One third of the spill materials should be removed using recovery equipment within three days of the spill event, according to the national measure plan. The capability of recovery equipment to remove spill materials can be estimated, and the equipment should then be prepared to mitigate the harmful effects of future oil and HNS accidents on humans and marine ecosystems.

The oilspilled worldwide causes ecological disasters that result in enormous damages to the quality of marine environment, and great expenses on clear-up operations are needed. Due to its wide coverage and day-night all-weather observation capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an important tool for oilspill monitoring and detection. C-band SAR is well adapted to detect oil pollution because oil slicks dampen the Bragg waves and reduce radar backscattering coefficients. In order to detect the area of oil slicks, the algorithm consists of these steps: Preprocessing, Masking of land areas, Detection of dark spots, Spot feature extraction, Dark spot classification. In this paper, the authors examined two coastal regions around Hong Kong and Yantai, China. The obtained results performed on Envisat ASAR images have demonstrated that it is efficient to detect oilspill around the coastal regions. The methodology still needs to be refined with the collection of more SAR data in the near future.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill of the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010 was the largest accidental marine oilspill in the history of the petroleum industry. An immediate request, after the accident, was to detect the oil slick and to measure its extent: SAR images were the obvious tool to be employed for the task. This paper presents a processing scheme based on Markov Random Fields (MRF) theory. MRF theory describes the global information by probability terms involving local neighborhood representations of the SAR backscatter data. The random degradation introduced by speckle noise is dealt with a pre-processing stage which applies a nonlinear diffusion filter. Spatial context attributes are structured by the Bayes equation derived from a Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) estimation. The probability terms define an objective function of a MRF model whose goal is to detect contours and fine structures. The markovian segmentation problem is solved with a numerical optimization method. The scheme was applied to an Envisat/ASAR image over the Gulf of Mexico of May 9, 2010, when the oilspill was already fully developed. The final result was obtained with 51 recursion cycles, where, at each step, the segmentation consists of a 3-class label field (open sea and two oil slick thicknesses). Both the MRF model and the parameters of the stochastic optimization procedure will be provided, together with the area measurement of the two kinds of oil slick.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion led to a rupture of the wellhead underneath the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) drilling platform. In addition to impacts on marine life and coasts, the resulting oilspill and cleanup operations also affected air quality. We measured a wide range of gas and aerosol species in the air close to and downwind of the DWH site. Among all of the measured species, the most important air quality concern for populations along the Gulf coast and inland was aerosols in respirable sizes. Since the measured gas-phase hydrocarbons were distributed in a fairly narrow plume evaporating from fresh surface oil and organic aerosol was measured in a much broader plume, the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) evidently formed from unmeasured, less volatile hydrocarbons that were emitted from a wider area around the site. Older surface oil near the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida had little effect on SOA formation. The SOA mass increased with distance downwind of the DWH site. Preliminary results indicate that at least a few percent by mass of the spilledoil is converted into SOA. From the flaring, surface recovery, and cleanup operations, initial calculations of emission ratios also indicate that a few percent by mass of oil burned on the surface was emitted as black carbon aerosols. These organic and black carbon aerosols from the DWH oilspill influence local visibility and radiation and have potential health effects. Furthermore, they likely occasionally reached populated areas at concentrations that were a significant fraction of air quality standards.

There is increasing concern about the threat posed by oilspills to the coastal environment. This is reflected in the promulgation of various national and international standards among which are those that require companies whose activities involves oilspill risk, to have oil pollution emergency plans or similar arrangements for responding promptly and effectively to oil pollution incidents. Operational oceanography systems (OOS) that provide decision makers with oilspill trajectory forecasting, have demonstrated their usefulness in recent accidents (Castanedo et al., 2006). In recent years, many national and regional OOS have been setup focusing on short-term oilspill forecast (up to 5 days). However, recent accidental marine oilspills (Prestige in Spain, Deep Horizon in Gulf of Mexico) have revealed the importance of having larger prediction horizons (up to 15 days) in regional-scale areas. In this work, we have developed a methodology to provide probabilistic oilspill forecast based on numerical modelling and statistical methods. The main components of this approach are: (1) Use of high resolution long-term (1948-2009) historical hourly data bases of wind, wind-induced currents and astronomical tide currents obtained using state-of-the-art numerical models; (2) classification of representative wind field patterns (n=100) using clustering techniques based on PCA and K-means algorithms (Camus et al., 2011); (3) determination of the cluster occurrence probability and the stochastic matrix (matrix of transition of probability or Markov matrix), p_ij, (probability of moving from a cluster "i" to a cluster "j" in one time step); (4) Initial state for mid-term simulations is obtained from available wind forecast using nearest-neighbors analog method; (5) 15-days Stochastic Markov Chain simulations (m=1000) are launched; (6) Corresponding oilspill trajectories are carried out by TESEO Lagrangian transport model (Abascal et al., 2009); (7) probability maps are

Full Text Available Hypothetical cases of oilspills, caused by ship failure in the northern Adriatic, are analysed with the aim of producing three-dimensional models of sea circulation and oil contaminant transport. Sea surface elevations, sea temperature and salinity fields are applied as a forcing argument on the model's open boundaries.The Aladin-HR model with a spatial resolution of 8 km and a time interval of 3 hours is used for atmospheric forcing. River discharges along the coastline in question are introduced as point source terms and are assumed to have zero salinity at their respective locations. The results of the numerical modelling of physical oceanography parameters are validated by measurements carried out in the ‘Adriatic Sea monitoring programme’ in a series of current meter and CTD stations in the period from 1 January 2008 to 15 November 2008.The oilspill model uses the current field obtained from a circulation model.Besides the convective dispersive transport of oil pollution (Lagrangian model of discrete particles, the model takes into account a number of reactive processes such as emulsification, dissolution, evaporation and heat balance between the oil,sea and atmosphere. An actual event took place on 6 February 2008,when the ship `Und Adriyatik' caught fire in the vicinity of the town of Rovinj (Croatia en route from Istanbul (Turkey to Trieste (Italy. At the time the fire broke out, the ship was carrying around 800 tons of oil. Thanks to the rapid intervention of the firedepartment, the fire was extinguished during the following 12 hours,preventing possible catastrophic environmental consequences. Based on this occurrence, five hypothetical scenarios of ship failure with a consequent spill of 800 tons of oil over 12 hours were analysed. The main distinction between the simulated scenarios is the time of the start of the oilspill, corresponding to the times when stronger winds were blowing (>7 m s-1 with a minimum duration of 24 h

Marine environments are frequently exposed to oilspills as a result of transportation, oildrilling or fuel usage. Whereas large oilspills and their effects have been widely documented,more common and recurrent small spills typically escape attention. To fill this important gapin the assessment of

Marine environments are frequently exposed to oilspills as a result of transportation, oildrilling or fuel usage. Whereas large oilspills and their effects have been widely documented,more common and recurrent small spills typically escape attention. To fill this important gapin the assessment of

The ubiquitous exploitation of petroleum hydrocarbons (HCs) has been accompanied by accidental spills and chronic pollution in marine ecosystems, including the deep ocean. Physicochemical technologies are available for oilspill cleanup, but HCs must ultimately be mineralized by microorganisms. How environmental factors drive the assembly and activity of HC-degrading microbial communities remains unknown, limiting our capacity to integrate microorganism-based cleanup strategies with current physicochemical remediation technologies. In this review, we summarize recent findings about microbial physiology, metabolism and ecology and describe how microbes can be exploited to create improved biotechnological solutions to clean up marine surface and deep waters, sediments and beaches.

The pilot Project PRIMI, promoted by the Italian Space Agency in the field of oilspill monitoring, is developing a system utilizing multi-platform SAR and optical data (mainly ERS, ENVISAT, COSMO/SkyMed, MODIS and MERIS) for slick detection. It ensures a frequent revisit time of any Mediterranean area, and a forecast utilility for the detected spills. The system also provides data on wind, waves and currents, as well as ship data inferred from the satellite imagery. Its architecture, performances and the operational activities are presented.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill constituted an ecosystem-level injury in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Much oil spread at 1100-1300m depth, contaminating and affecting deepwater habitats. Factors such as oil-biodegradation, ocean currents and response measures (dispersants, burning) reduced coastal oiling. Still, >2100km of shoreline and many coastal habitats were affected. Research demonstrates that oiling caused a wide range of biological effects, although worst-case impact scenarios did not materialize. Biomarkers in individual organisms were more informative about oiling stress than population and community indices. Salt marshes and seabird populations were hard hit, but were also quite resilient to oiling effects. Monitoring demonstrated little contamination of seafood. Certain impacts are still understudied, such as effects on seagrass communities. Concerns of long-term impacts remain for large fish species, deep-sea corals, sea turtles and cetaceans. These species and their habitats should continue to receive attention (monitoring and research) for years to come.

Ecosystem boundary retreat due to human-induced pressure is a generally observed phenomenon. However, studies that document thresholds beyond which internal resistance mechanisms are overwhelmed are uncommon. Following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill, field studies from a few sites suggested that oiling of salt marshes could lead to a biogeomorphic feedback where plant death resulted in increased marsh erosion. We tested for spatial generality of and thresholds in this effect across 103 salt marsh sites spanning ~430 kilometers of shoreline in coastal Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, using data collected as part of the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Our analyses revealed a threshold for oil impacts on marsh edge erosion, with higher erosion rates occurring for ~1–2 years after the spill at sites with the highest amounts of plant stem oiling (90–100%). These results provide compelling evidence showing large-scale ecosystem loss following the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. More broadly, these findings provide rare empirical evidence identifying a geomorphologic threshold in the resistance of an ecosystem to increasing intensity of human-induced disturbance.

Oilspills have become a serious problem in cold environments with the ever-increasing resource exploitation,transportation,storage,and accidental leakage of oil.Several techniques,including physical,chemical,and biological methods,are used to recover spilledoil from the environment.Bioremediation is a promising option for remediation since it is effective and economic in removing oil with less undue environmental damages.However,it is a relatively slow process in cold regions and the degree of success depends on a number of factors,including the properties and fate of oilspilled in cold environments,and the major microbial and environmental limitations of bioremediation.The microbial factors include bioavailability of hydrocarbons,mass transfer through the cell membrane,and metabolic limitations.As for the environmental limitations in the cold regions,the emphasis is on soil temperatures,freeze-thaw processes,oxygen and nutrients availability,toxicity,and electron acceptors.There have been several cases of success in the polar regions,particularly in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.However,the challenges and constraints for bioremediation in cold environments remain large.

Ecosystem boundary retreat due to human-induced pressure is a generally observed phenomenon. However, studies that document thresholds beyond which internal resistance mechanisms are overwhelmed are uncommon. Following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill, field studies from a few sites suggested that oiling of salt marshes could lead to a biogeomorphic feedback where plant death resulted in increased marsh erosion. We tested for spatial generality of and thresholds in this effect across 103 salt marsh sites spanning ~430 kilometers of shoreline in coastal Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, using data collected as part of the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Our analyses revealed a threshold for oil impacts on marsh edge erosion, with higher erosion rates occurring for ~1–2 years after the spill at sites with the highest amounts of plant stem oiling (90–100%). These results provide compelling evidence showing large-scale ecosystem loss following the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. More broadly, these findings provide rare empirical evidence identifying a geomorphologic threshold in the resistance of an ecosystem to increasing intensity of human-induced disturbance. PMID:27679956

The biodegradation of hydrocarbons by microorganisms is one of the primary ways by which an oilspill is eliminated from contaminated sites.One such spill was that of the Russian tanker the Nakhodka that spilled heavy oil into the Sea of Japan on January 2,1997.This paper describes the three main processes of the Nakhodka oilspill,including:(1) the weathering of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria (genus Pseudomonas)and crystallized organic compounds from the Nakhodka oilspill-polluted seashores after nine years;(2) the laboratory-scale biodegradation of the Nakhodka oilspill over a 429-day period;and (3) the bioavailability of kaolinite clay minerals and the role they play in seawater polluted with the Nakhodka oilspill.Upon the slow evaporation of the Nakhodka oilspill during the 9-year weathering,the dendritic crystal growth of paraffin (a mixture of alkanes) occurred in the oil crust under natural conditions.Heavy metals were obtained in the original heavy oil samples of three seashores in the Sea of Japan.Si,S,Ti,Cr,Ni,Cu,and Zn were found in the original Nakhodka oilspill samples whereas these heavy metals and S were no longer present after 9 years.The anaerobic reverse side of the oil crust contained numerous coccus-type bacteria associated with halite.The hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria and paraffin wax in the oil crust may have a significant effect on the weathering processes of the Nakhodka oilspill during the 9-year bioremediation.A biodegradation process of heavy oil from the Nakhodka oilspill by indigenous microbial consortia was monitored over 429 days in the laboratory.The indigenous microbial consortia consisted of bacteria and fungi as well as the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from Atake seashore,Ishikawa Prefecture,Japan.Both bacteria and fungi had a significant role in the observed biodegradation of heavy oil during the 429-day bioremediation with respect to the pH of the solution.Hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria had a tendency to

The estimation of oilspill coverage is an important part of monitoring of oilspills at sea. The spatial resolution of images collected by airborne hyper-spectral remote sensing limits both the detection of oilspills and the accuracy of estimates of their size. We consider at-sea oilspills with zonal distribution in this paper and improve the traditional independent component analysis algorithm. For each independent component we added two constraint conditions: non-negativity and constant sum. We use priority weighting by higher-order statistics, and then the spectral angle match method to overcome the order nondeterminacy. By these steps, endmembers can be extracted and abundance quantified simultaneously. To examine the coverage of a real oilspill and correct our estimate, a simulation experiment and a real experiment were designed using the algorithm described above. The result indicated that, for the simulation data, the abundance estimation error is 2.52% and minimum root mean square error of the reconstructed image is 0.030 6. We estimated the oilspill rate and area based on eight hyper-spectral remote sensing images collected by an airborne survey of Shandong Changdao in 2011. The total oilspill area was 0.224 km2, and the oilspill rate was 22.89%. The method we demonstrate in this paper can be used for the automatic monitoring of oilspill coverage rates. It also allows the accurate estimation of the oilspill area.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — With increasing oil exploration and ship traffic in the U.S. Arctic, there is concern about the increased potential for an oilspill event in this region of the...

The oilspill impact analysis (OSIA) software system has been developed to supply a tool for comprehensive, quantitative environmental impact assessments resulting from oilspills. In the system, a biological component evaluates potential effects on exposed organisms based on results from a physico-chemieal fates component, including the extent and characteristics of the surface slick, and dissolved and total concentrations of hydrocarbons in the water column. The component includes a particle-based exposure model for migratory adult fish populations, a particle-based exposure model for spawning planktonic organisms (eggs and larvae), and an exposure model for wildlife species (sea birds or marine mammals). The exposure model for migratory adult fish populations simulates the migration behaviors of fish populations migrating to or staying in their feeding areas, over-wintering areas or spawning areas, and determines the acute effects (mortality) and chronic accumulation (body burdens) from the dissolved contaminant. The exposure model for spawning planktonic organisms simulates the release of eggs and larvae, also as particles, from specific spawning areas during the spawning period, and determines their potential exposure to contaminants in the water or sediment. The exposure model for wild species calculates the exposure to surrace oil of wildlife (bird and marine mammal ) categories inhabiting the contaminated area. Compared with the earlier models in which all kinds of organisms are assumed evenly and randomly distributed, the updated biological exposure models can more realistically estimate potential effects on marine ecological system from oilspill pollution events.

In the recent decades oilspills in the aquatic environments are one of the major sources of environmental pollutions, which are steadily growing with the increase in oil consumption. Adsorption is a rapid and cost effective processto minimize the environmental impacts of oilspills andcleanup these pollutants. In this work, the crude oil sorption capacity was examined with raw sugarcane bagasse and acetylated sugarcane bagasse. Results show that the acetylated bagasse was significantly more oleophilic than the raw bagasse and acetylation reaction can increase bagasse oil sorption ability by about 90%. The maximum sorption capacities of acetylated bagasse were obtained about 11.3 g and 9.1 g in dry system (crude oil sorption) and oil layer sorption, respectively. The physicochemical characteristics of the sorbents such as composition, water solubility, moisture content and density were measured according to ASTM standard methods. Also Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) of raw and acetylated bagasse was performed to investigate the effect of acetylation on sugarcane bagasse structure.

The oilspill which occurred recently in the Gulf of Mexico highlighted the lack of efficient oilspill clean-up equipment for an offshore environment. With the increase in industrial operations in the Arctic Seas it is of high importance to develop an efficient oilspill response as the absence of reliable oilspill contingency plans will not be tolerated in such environmentally sensitive areas. The aim of this paper is to present the use of the ARKTOS amphibious craft for cleaning up an oilspill in the Arctic. This craft is usually used for logistical services and evacuation purposes; its use for clean-up purposes has been under study since 2000. This study showed that the ARKTOS craft could be an efficient means for oilspill clean-up in the Arctic because of its proven ice capable amphibious platforms and its hydraulic power; however oil collection trials should be performed to validate it.

for an oil-slick to break into very fine droplets (less than 100 microns in diameter) which are rapidly distributed throughout the water volume because of the natural water movement. With normal mixing energies, the oil concentration in the water column...

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. Considered the largest accidental marine oilspill in history, oil flowed for three months and approximately five million barrels of oilspilled through by mid-July 2010. In this report, we analyze fish and bird data to assess the impact of the oilspill on the Gulf wildlife. Our findings based on the available fish data for 2005, 2006, and 2010 are not very helpful to make a judgement on the negative impact of ...

The polar bear is the apical predator and universal symbol of the Arctic. They occur throughout the Arctic marine environment wherever sea ice is prevalent. In the southern Beaufort Sea, polar bears are most common within the area of the outer continental shelf, where the hunt for seals along persistent leads and openings in the ice. Polar bears are a significant cultural and subsistence component of the lifestyles of indigenous people. They may also be one of the most important indicators of the health of the Arctic marine environment. Polar bears have a late age of maturation, a long inter0brth period, and small liter sizes. These life history features make polar bear populations susceptible to natural and human perturbations.Petroleum exploration and extraction have been in progress along the coast of northern Alaska for more than 25 years. Until recently, most activity has taken place on the mainland or at sites connected to the shore by a causeway. In 1999, BP Exploration-Alaska began constructing the first artificial production island designed to transport oil through sub-seafloor pipelines. Other similar projects have been proposed to begin in the next several years.The proximity of oil exploration and development to principal polar bear habitats raises concerns, and with the advent of true off-shore development projects, these concerns are compounded. Contact with oil and other industrial chemicals by polar bears, through grooming, consumption of tainted food, or direct consumption of chemicals, may be lethal. The active ice where polar bears hunt is also where spilledoil may be expected to concentrate during spring break-up and autumn freeze-up. Because of this, we could expect that an oilspill in the waters and ice of the continental shelf would have profound effects on polar bears. Assessments of the effects of spills, however, have not been done. This report described a promising method for estimating the effects of oilspills on polar bears in the

Full Text Available In view of the fact that oilspill remote sensing could only generate the oil slick information at a specific time and that traditional oilspill simulation models were not designed to deal with dynamic conditions, a dynamic data-driven application system (DDDAS was introduced. The DDDAS entails both the ability to incorporate additional data into an executing application and, in reverse, the ability of applications to dynamically steer the measurement process. Based on the DDDAS, combing a remote sensor system that detects oilspills with a numerical simulation, an integrated data processing, analysis, forecasting and emergency response system was established. Once an oilspill accident occurs, the DDDAS-based oilspill model receives information about the oil slick extracted from the dynamic remote sensor data in the simulation. Through comparison, information fusion and feedback updates, continuous and more precise oilspill simulation results can be obtained. Then, the simulation results can provide help for disaster control and clean-up. The Penglai, Xingang and Suizhong oilspill results showed our simulation model could increase the prediction accuracy and reduce the error caused by empirical parameters in existing simulation systems. Therefore, the DDDAS-based detection and simulation system can effectively improve oilspill simulation and diffusion forecasting, as well as provide decision-making information and technical support for emergency responses to oilspills.

Recently, porous hydrophobic/oleophilic materials (PHOMs) have been shown to be the most promising candidates for cleaning up oilspills; however, due to their limited absorption capacity, a large quantity of PHOMs would be consumed in oilspill remediation, causing serious economic problems. In addition, the complicated and time-consuming process of oil recovery from these sorbents is also an obstacle to their practical application. To solve the above problems, we apply external pumping on PHOMs to realize the continuous collection of oilspills in situ from the water surface with high speed and efficiency. Based on this novel design, oil/water separation and oil collection can be simultaneously achieved in the remediation of oilspills, and the oil sorption capacity is no longer limited to the volume and weight of the sorption material. This novel external pumping technique may bring PHOMs a step closer to practical application in oilspill remediation.

The NASA Applied Sciences Program created the Gulf of Mexico Initiative (GOMI) in 2007 "to enhance the region s ability to recover from the devastating hurricanes of 2005 and to address its coastal management issues going into the future." The GOMI utilizes NASA Earth science assets to address regional priorities defined by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, a partnership formed by the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, along with 13 federal agencies and 4 regional organizations to promote regional collaboration and enhance the ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico. NASA's GOMI is managed by the Applied Science and Technology Project Office at Stennis Space Center and has awarded over $18 million in Gulf of Mexico research since 2008. After the Deepwater Horizon oilspill, GOMI personnel assisted members of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance with obtaining NASA remote sensing data for use in their oilspill response efforts.

Two simple, eco-friendly and efficient phase-selective gelators were developed for instant (oil (either commercial fuels or pure organic liquids) from an oil-water mixture at room temperature to combat marine oilspills.

The effects of a simulated spill of sunflower oil in salt marsh sediments were compared with an experiment with linseed oil. Sunflower and linseed oil penetrated the sediments at the same rates but different adsorption of the oils onto sediment particles resulted in the establishment of anaerobic conditions at shallower depths in sediments contaminated with linseed oil than with sunflower oil. The total lipid content of sunflower oil contaminated sediments remained almost stable for 6 months, whilst only 40% of linseed oil remained in the sediment after 2 months. Numbers of culturable heterotrophic bacteria and aerobic oil degrading bacteria in muddy sediment increased rapidly in response to the presence of the oils but bacterial numbers in sandy sediments increased more slowly for sunflower oil. Changes in fatty acid composition indicate similar degradation pathways for both oils but sunflower oil degraded more slowly than linseed oil and thus has the potential for longer lasting effects in marine environments.

The spillage of oil in Polar Regions is particularly serious due to the threat to the environment and the difficulties in detecting and tracking the full extent of the oil seepage beneath the sea ice. Development of fast and reliable sensing techniques is highly desirable. In this paper hyperspectral imaging combined with signal processing and classification techniques are proposed as a potential tool to detect the presence of oil beneath the sea ice. A small sample, lab based experiment, serving as a proof of concept, resulted in the successful identification of oil presence beneath the thin ice layer as opposed to the other sample with ice only. The paper demonstrates the results of this experiment that granted a financial support to execute full feasibility study of this technology for oilspill detection beneath the sea ice.

Oil sorbents play a very important part in the remediation processes of oilspills. To enhance the oil-sorption properties and simplify the oil-recovery process, various advanced oil sorbents and oil-collecting devices based on them have been proposed recently. Here, we firstly discuss the design considerations for the fabrication of oil sorbents and describe recently developed oil sorbents based on modification strategy. Then, recent advances regarding oil sorbents mainly based on carbon materials and swellable oleophilic polymers are also presented. Subsequently, some additional properties are emphasized, which are required by oil sorbents to cope with oilspills under extreme conditions or to facilitate the oil-collection processes. Furthermore, some oil-collection devices based on oil sorbents that have been developed recently are shown. Finally, an outlook and challenges for the next generation of oil-spill-remediation technology based on oil-sorbents materials are given.

The purpose of this project was to:1) describe the effects of climate change in the Arctic and its impact on circulation,2) describe hindcast data used in the Ocean Energy Management,Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) OilSpill Risk Analysis (OSRA) model,3)evaluate alternatives such as using forecast results in the OSRA model,and 4) recommend future studies.Effects of climate change on winds,sea ice,ocean circulation and river discharge in the Arctic and impacts on surface circulation can be evaluated only through a series of specially designed numerical experiments using highresolution coupled ice-ocean models to elucidate the sensitivity of the models to various parameterizations or forcings.The results of these experiments will suggest what mechanisms are most important in controlling model response and guide inferences on how OSRA may respond to different climate change scenarios.Climatological change in the Arctic could lead to drastic alterations of wind,sea ice cover and concentration,and surface current fields all of which would influence hypothetical oilspill trajectories.Because of the pace at which conditions are changing,BOEMRE needs to assess whether forecast ice/ocean model results might contain useful information for the purposes of calculating hypothetical oilspill trajectories.

Accidental marine oilspill pollution can result in severe environmental, ecological, economic and other consequences. This paper discussed the model of Marine OilSpill Risk Mapping (MOSRM), which was constructed as follows: (1) proposing a marine oilspill risk system based on the typical marine oilspill pollution accidents and prevailing risk theories; (2) identifying suitable indexes that are supported by quantitative sub-indexes; (3) constructing the risk measuring models according to the actual interactions between the factors in the risk system; and (4) assessing marine oilspill risk on coastal city scale with GIS to map the overall risk. The case study of accidental marine oilspill pollution in the coastal area of Dalian, China was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model. The coastal areas of Dalian were divided into three zones with risk degrees of high, medium, and low. And detailed countermeasures were proposed for specific risk zones.

通过机械方法回收溢出油液评价项目的初始化工作进行了研究.该工作的重点在于对吸油剂的评价.为了评价不同类型的吸油剂的有效性,吸油剂在不同形态下受到测试,并且进行了定量的比较,从而为在给定条件下吸油剂的选择提供了依据.%This is the initial work of the project of evaluation of mechanical recovery of oilspills. A major focus of this part was the evaluation of oil sorbents. The various forms of sorbents were tested to evaluate the effectiveness of the various types of sorbents and a quantitative comparison was provided sorbent selection for given spill conditions.

On December 12, 2007, the second largest oilspill in the history of Norwegian oil exploration occurred on StatoilHydro's Statfjord Alpha platform. The spill was caused by a snapped 20″ oil off-loading hose. Thorough investigations by StatoilHydro [1] and by the Norwegian authorities [2] revealed th

The United States is currently experiencing its worst man-made environmental disaster, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak. The Gulf of Mexico oilspill is severe in its impact, but it is only one of several global oilspill disasters in history. Students can utilize the technology of Google Earth to explore the spatial and temporal distribution of…

of residual oil. On 2 July 1994, due to gusty winds, a crack was developed on the starboard side, thus spillingoil from the ship. The amount of oilspilled was estimated around 2 tonnes. A team of scientists from National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) Goa...

winds from operational scatterometer measurements (ASCAT, the Advanced Scatterometer). Both data sets are freely and openly available. The initial oilspill location inputs to the model are based on the detected oilspill locations from the SAR images acquired on June 11 and 14. Three oil slicks...

This study reviews and assesses the technology of oilspill spreading, retention and cleanup and proposes research needs in these areas. Sources of oilspills are analyzed and the difficulty of gathering meaningful statistics is discussed. Barrier technology is reviewed and problem areas analyzed. Natural and forced biodegradation and natural and chemical dispersion of oilspills are considered. Research recommendations are categorized under the following two headings (1) Preventive techniques and (2) Containment, Cleanup and Dispersion.

Following the expansion of the exploration and exploitation of the hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean Levantine Basin during the last 5 years, oilspill simulations for 20 existing offshore platforms/wells were carried out based on new and high resolution bathymetric, meteorological, oceanographic, and geomorphological data. The oilspill simulations were carried out using the well known MEDSLIK oilspill model, with the use of high temporal and spatial resolution data for 3D sea currents, winds and waves, provided by the CYCOFOS forecasting system, downscaled from the Copernicus Marine environment monitoring service (CMEMS). The hindcast oilspill simulations from the 20 potential oilspill sources have been prepared for a period of four years, presenting the movement of the spills and the area affected, the fate parameters, the first impact on the coast and the extend of the affected coastline from each location every week. The modeled oilspills took into account the oilspill scenario following the REMPEC MEDEXPOL 2013 experiment. Moreover, a qualitative analysis of the seabed morphology has been applied to examine the direction of the oil slick expansion, shown that the direction of the major axis of the oilspills, in most of the cases examined, is oriented according to the prevailing azimuth of bathymetric features. The oilspill simulations from the existing offshore wells/platforms, show a clear trend for east and northeast movement of the oilspills in the Eastern Mediterranean Levantine Basin, with the first impact at the coast in a time interval between 1 to 20 days after the first oilspilled at sea, depending on the location of the platforms/wells and of the intensity and direction of the meteo-ocean data.

Full Text Available Problem statement: Anthropogenic activities pollute the oceans with oil through land run off, vessels accidents, periodic tanker discharges and bilge discharges. Oilspills are environmental disasters that impact human, plants and wild life including birds, fish and mammals. Approach: In this study, the International Guidelines for Preventing OilsSpills and Response to Disasters were reviewed and the characteristics of oilspills were discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of various oilspill response methods were evaluated. A comparative analysis were performed on the currently available remediation technologies using 10 evaluation criteria that included cost, efficiency, time, impact on wild life, reliability, level of difficulty, oil recovery, weather, effect on physical/chemical characteristics of oil and the need for further treatment. The advantages and disadvantages of each response method were used to determine the score assigned to that method. Results: There are many government regualtions for individual countries that serve as prevention mesures for oilspills in the offshore environment. They have to do with the design of equipment and machinery used in the offshore environment and performing the necessary safety inspections. The primary objectives of response to oilspill are: to prevent the spill from moving onto shore, reduce the impact on marine life and speed the degradation of any unrecovered oil. There are several physical, chemical, thermal and biological remediation technologies for oilspills including booms, skimmers, sorbents, dispersants, in-situ burning and bioremediation. Each technique has its advantages and disadvantages and the choice of a particular technique will depend on: type of oil, physical, biological and economical characteristics of the spill, location, weather and sea conditions, amount spilled and rate of spillage, depth of water column, time of the year and effectiveness of technique. Coclusion

Dispersant effectiveness tests are reviewed. Studies have been conducted of the variances among several standard regulatory tests. Three main causes of differences have been identified, oil-to-water ratio, settling time and energy. Energy can be partially compensated for in high energy tests by correcting for natural dispersion. With this correction and with high oil-to-water ratios and a settling time of at least 10 minutes, five apparatuses yield very similar results for a variety of oils and dispersants. Recent studies into the energy variation of dispersant tests show that the energy level varies in many apparatuses. The repeatability of energy levels in apparatus is largely responsible for the variation in dispersant effectiveness values in certain apparatus. Studies of analytical procedures show that traditional extraction and analysis methods cause a bias to results. Methods to overcome these difficulties are presented.

Full Text Available During any marine oilspill, floating oil slicks that reach shorelines threaten a wide array of coastal habitats. To assess the presence of oil near shorelines during the Deepwater Horizon (DWH oilspill, we scanned the library of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR imagery collected during the event to determine which images intersected shorelines and appeared to contain oil. In total, 715 SAR images taken during the DWH spill were analyzed and processed, with 188 of the images clearly showing oil. Of these, 156 SAR images showed oil within 10 km of the shoreline with appropriate weather conditions for the detection of oil on SAR data. We found detectable oil in SAR images within 10 km of the shoreline from west Louisiana to west Florida, including near beaches, marshes, and islands. The high number of SAR images collected in Barataria Bay, Louisiana in 2010 allowed for the creation of a nearshore oiling persistence map. This analysis shows that, in some areas inside Barataria Bay, floating oil was detected on as many as 29 different days in 2010. The nearshore areas with persistent floating oil corresponded well with areas where ground survey crews discovered heavy shoreline oiling. We conclude that satellite-based SAR imagery can detect oil slicks near shorelines, even in sheltered areas. These data can help assess potential shoreline oil exposure without requiring boats or aircraft. This method can be particularly helpful when shoreline assessment crews are hampered by difficult access or, in the case of DWH, a particularly large spatial and temporal spill extent.

Viscosity plays an important role in dispersion of spilled surface oil, so does adding chemical dispersants. For seven different oil grades, entrainment rate and initial droplet size distribution were investigated using a plunging jet apparatus with coupled camera equipment and subsequent image a

Viscosity plays an important role in dispersion of spilled surface oil, so does adding chemical dispersants. For seven different oil grades, entrainment rate and initial droplet size distribution were investigated using a plunging jet apparatus with coupled camera equipment and subsequent image a

Viscosity plays an important role in dispersion of spilled surface oil, so does adding chemical dispersants. For seven different oil grades, entrainment rate and initial droplet size distribution were investigated using a plunging jet apparatus with coupled camera equipment and subsequent image

Viscosity plays an important role in dispersion of spilled surface oil, so does adding chemical dispersants. For seven different oil grades, entrainment rate and initial droplet size distribution were investigated using a plunging jet apparatus with coupled camera equipment and subsequent image

The oilspill from the Nakhodka tanker in the Sea of Japan in January 1997 caused extensive damage to the coastal environment of Japan and provided the impetus to develop an oilspill simulation system. The newly developed system presented here consists of a meteorological data processing subsystem, an ocean circulation model, and an oilspill model. The spill model makes use of the particles tracking method and includes the simulation of the physical properties of oil, allowing the particle properties of the oil (such as density, size, viscosity and water content) to be modified as the spill evolves. The system was tested with the sea currents information provided by the three-dimensional modular ocean model and with a more simplified nonlinear model of sea currents. This paper also presented a test of the simulation system using information from the oilspill incident in the Sea of Japan in April 1997 involving the Osung No 3 Korean tanker. This incident involved about 229 kilolitres of heavy Bunker C type oilspilled into an area characterized by strong Tsushima currents and by strong tidal currents. The oilspill simulation system was found to be in good agreement with the actual observations of the oilspill. 31 refs., 1 tab., 6 figs.

To the potential oil-spill risk caused by offshore pipeline more attention has been paid after the Dalian oilspill incident from oil-pipeline explosion. Since then an issue about how to prevent and control the sudden oil-spill from the offshore pipeline has been raised. In this paper, we proposed an optimized model to analyze the main causes (probability) of spill and the consequence with the fuzzy comprehensive assessment model. Considering the complicated assessment process for oil-spill, the assessment factor system involving the spill probability and consequence was established based on the operative manual and statistic leakage/damage data of offshore pipeline in order to estimate the integrated spill risk score automatically. The evaluated factors of spill probability could be grouped into five aspects:corrosion, fatigue, national damage, third party, and operational fault;the consequence evaluated factors of spill included hazard of oil and impact-controlling capability. With some modifications based on experts’ opinions, each of the evaluated factors in our work was developed with a relative weight and evaluation criterion. A test example for an offshore pipe-line in the Bohai waters was described to show how the model can be used for an actual case in more detail. By using the oil-spill risk assessment model, it is easy to determine the risk level associated with the ongoing activity and management level and hence to take the risk mitigation action immediately.

Full Text Available In Finland the Regional Fire and Rescue Services (RFRS are responsible for near shore oilspill response and shoreline cleanup operations. In addition, they assist in other types of maritime incidents, such as search and rescue operations and fire-fighting on board. These statutory assignments require the RFRS to have capability to act both on land and at sea. As maritime incidents occur infrequently, little routine has been established. In order to improve their performance in maritime operations, the RFRS are participating in a new oilspill training programme to be launched by South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. This training programme aims to utilize new educational methods; e-learning and simulator based training. In addition to fully exploiting the existing navigational bridge simulator, radio communication simulator and crisis management simulator, an entirely new simulator is developed. This simulator is designed to model the oil recovery process; recovery method, rate and volume in various conditions with different oil types. New simulator enables creation of a comprehensive training programme covering training tasks from a distress call to the completion of an oilspill response operation. Structure of the training programme, as well as the training objectives, are based on the findings from competence and education surveys conducted in spring 2016. In these results, a need for vessel maneuvering and navigation exercises together with actual response measures training were emphasized. Also additional training for maritime radio communication, GMDSS-emergency protocols and collaboration with maritime authorities were seemed important. This paper describes new approach to the maritime operations training designed for rescue authorities, a way of learning by doing, without mobilising the vessels at sea.

Oilspills occur commonly, and chemical compounds originating from oilspills are widespread in the aquatic environment. In order to monitor effects of a bunker oilspill on the aquatic environment, biomarker responses were measured in eelpout (Zoarces viviparus) sampled along a gradient in Göteborg harbor where the oilspill occurred and at a reference site, 2 weeks after the oilspill. Eelpout were also exposed to the bunker oil in a laboratory study to validate field data. The results show that eelpout from the Göteborg harbor are influenced by contaminants, especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), also during "normal" conditions. The bunker oilspill strongly enhanced the biomarker responses. Results show elevated ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activities in all exposed sites, but, closest to the oilspill, the EROD activity was partly inhibited, possibly by PAHs. Elevated DNA adduct levels were also observed after the bunker oilspill. Chemical analyses of bile revealed high concentrations of PAH metabolites in the eelpout exposed to the oil, and the same PAH metabolite profile was evident both in eelpout sampled in the harbor and in the eelpout exposed to the bunker oil in the laboratory study.

Full Text Available As oil transportation worldwide continues to increase, many communities are at risk of oilspill disasters and must anticipate and prepare for them. Factors that influence oilspill consequences are myriad and range from the biophysical to the social. We provide a summary literature review and overview framework to help communities systematically consider the factors and linkages that would influence consequences of a potential oilspill. The focus is on spills from oil tanker accidents. Drawing primarily on empirical studies of previous oilspill disasters, we focused on several main domains of interest: the oilspill itself, disaster management, the physical marine environment, marine biology, human health, economy, and policy. Key variables that influence the severity of consequences are identified, and significant interactions between variables are delineated. The framework can be used to clarify the complexity of oilspill impacts, identify lessons that may be transferable from other oilspill disasters, develop scenarios for planning, and inform risk analysis and policy debates in localities that are seeking to understand and reduce their vulnerability to potential spill disasters. As a case study, the framework is used to consider potential oilspills and consequences in Vancouver, Canada. Major increases in oil tanker traffic are anticipated in this region, creating urgent new demands for risk information, disaster management planning, and policy responses. The case study identifies particular conditions that distinguish the Vancouver context from other historic events; in particular, proximity to a densely populated urban area, the type of oil being transported, financial compensation schemes, and local economic structure. Drawing lessons from other oilspill disasters is important but should be undertaken with recognition of these key differences. Some types of impacts that have been relatively inconsequential in previous events may be

Full Text Available From mid June 2010 to early August 2010, the white sandy beaches along Alabama's Gulf coast were inundated with crude oil discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well. The long-term consequences of this environmental catastrophe are still unfolding. Although BP has attempted to clean up some of these beaches, there still exist many unanswered questions regarding the physical, chemical, and ecological state of the oil contaminated beach system. In this paper, we present our understanding of what is known and known to be unknown with regard to the current state of Alabama's beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Motivated by our observations of the evolving distribution of oil in Alabama's beaches and BP's clean-up activities, we offer our thoughts on the lessons learned from this oilspill disaster.

Full Text Available From mid June 2010 to early August 2010, the white sandy beaches along Alabama's Gulf coast were inundated with crude oil discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well. The long-term consequences of this environmental catastrophe are still unfolding. Although BP has attempted to clean up some of these beaches, there still exist many unanswered questions regarding the physical, chemical, and ecological state of the oil contaminated beach system. In this paper, we present our understanding of what is known and known to be unknown with regard to the current state of Alabama's beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Motivated by our observations of the evolving distribution of oil in Alabama's beaches and BP's clean-up activities, we offer our thoughts on the lessons learned from this oilspill disaster.

This study determined effects of an oilspill on subtropical benthic community production and respiration by monitoring CO2 fluxes in benthic chambers on intertidal sandflats during emersion before and after an accidental spill. The oilspill decreased sediment chlorophyll a concentrations, altered benthic macrofaunal community, and affected ecological functioning by suppressing or even stopping microalgal production, increasing bacterial respiration, and causing a shift from an autotrophic system to a heterotrophic system. Effects of the oilspill on the macrofauna were more severe than on benthic microalgae, and affected sedentary infauna more than motile epifauna. Despite the oilspill's impact on the benthic community and carbon metabolism, the affected area appeared to return to normal in about 23 days. Our results suggest that the prompt response of benthic metabolism to exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons can serve as a useful indicator of the impact of an oilspill.

Full Text Available Nowadays, swarm robotics research is having a great increase due to the benefits derived from its use, such as robustness, parallelism, and flexibility. Unlike distributed robotic systems, swarm robotics emphasizes a large number of robots, and promotes scalability. Among the multiple applications of such systems we could find are exploring unstructured environments, resource monitoring, or distributed sensing. Two of these applications, monitoring, and perimeter/area detection of a given resource, have several ecological uses. One of them is the detection and monitoring of pollutants to delimit their perimeter and area accurately. Maritime activity has been increasing gradually in recent years. Many ships carry products such as oil that can adversely affect the environment. Such products can produce high levels of pollution in case of being spilled into sea. In this paper we will present a distributed system which monitors, covers, and surrounds a resource by using a swarm of homogeneous low cost drones. These drones only use their local sensory information and do not require any direct communication between them. Taking into account the properties of this kind of oilspills we will present a microscopic model for a swarm of drones, capable of monitoring these spills properly. Furthermore, we will analyse the proper macroscopic operation of the swarm. The analytical and experimental results presented here show the proper evolution of our system.

We report the first application of a new mass spectrometry technique (gas chromatography combined to atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry, GC/APCI-MS/MS) for fingerprinting a crude oil and environmental samples from the largest accidental marine oilspill in history (the Macondo oilspill, the Gulf of Mexico, 2010). The fingerprinting of the oilspill is based on a trace analysis of petroleum biomarkers (steranes, diasteranes, and pentacyclic triterpanes) naturally occurring in crude oil. GC/APCI enables soft ionization of petroleum compounds that form abundant molecular ions without (or little) fragmentation. The ability to operate the instrument simultaneously in several tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) modes (e.g., full scan, product ion scan, reaction monitoring) significantly improves structural information content and sensitivity of analysis. For fingerprinting the oilspill, we constructed diagrams and conducted correlation studies that measure the similarity between environmental samples and enable us to differentiate the Macondo oilspill from other sources.

This article grew out of the obser-vation that as disaster events increase in frequency and severity , recovery from certain kinds , or com-binations of , disasters becomes increasingly diffi-cult, if not impossible.This phenomenon is not new.Throughout history , civilizations have faced ecological and cultural collapse resulting from drought , disease , or earthquake .It is made more cogent, however, by the rapidity of modern culture change , and the increased risk associated with hu-man-induced catastrophes , also known as techno-logical disasters .

Full Text Available Introduction: The implementation of measures for the prevention and spill of dangerous goods is an important aspect of sustainable development of railway transport. oilspills accident are the most dangerous. They are accompanied by significant pollution of all environmental objects. Studying and development of oil localization and clean-up technologies of such accidents is an important problem of environmental protection to modern conditions of railway transport development. The purpose: to improve the effectiveness of traditional methods of oilspill elimination and the development of new clean-up technologies adapted to the real conditions of the railway transport of Ukraine. Methods: To achieve the research purposes was used analysis of material flows, typical for places emergence and localization of the oilspill on the railways. Results: Analysis of standard technological scheme for the oilspills eliminations has shown that the most difficult task of effective clean-up surfaces is the timely delivery of oil sorbents and special equipment to the area spill containment. The general effectiveness of the elimination activities specifies the time from the beginning contact of dangerous goods with environmental objects to the absorption it into the structure of sorbent . Us was developed the technological scheme of oilspill elimination. This scheme provide a permanent and fast access to the sorbents into the oilspill localization area. It was proposed to device that allows you to transport the sorbent into sorption booms directly on the tank for transportation of petroleum products. Conclusions: Preventative accumulation of sorbents to the oilspill elimination into the localization area provides the organizational and operational simplicity of all stages of clean-up technology. Technical and economic assessment shows that the proposed technology is effective, technologically feasible and economically competitive.

Marine oilspills have caused major threats to marine environment over the past few years. The early detection of the oilspill is of great significance for the prevention and control of marine disasters. At present, remote sensing is one of the major approaches for monitoring the oilspill. Full polarization synthetic aperture radarc SAR data are employed to extract polarization decomposition parameters including entropy (H) and reflection entropy (A). The characteristic spectrum of the entropy and reflection entropy combination has analyzed and the polarization characteristic spectrum of the oilspill has developed to support remote sensing of the oilspill. The findings show that the information extracted from (1–A)×(1–H) and (1–H)×A parameters is relatively evident effects. The results of extraction of the oilspill information based onH×A parameter are relatively not good. The combination of the two has something to do withH andA values. In general, whenH>0.7,A value is relatively small. Here, the extraction of the oilspill information using (1–A)×(1–H) and (1–H)×A parameters obtains evident effects. Whichever combined parameter is adopted, oil well data would cause certain false alarm to the extraction of the oilspill information. In particular the false alarm of the extracted oilspill information based on (1–A)×(1–H) is relatively high, while the false alarm based on (1–A)×H and (1–H)×A parameters is relatively small, but an image noise is relatively big. The oilspill detection employing polarization characteristic spectrum support vector machine can effectively identify the oilspill information with more accuracy than that of the detection method based on single polarization feature.

Numerical modeling is an important tool to study and predict the transport of oilspills. However, the accu-racy of numerical models is not always good enough to provide reliable information for oilspill transport. It is necessary to analyze and identify major error sources for the models. A case study was conducted to analyze error sources of a three-dimensional oilspill model that was used operationally for oilspill forecast-ing in the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC), the State Oceanic Administration, China. On June 4, 2011, oil from sea bed spilled into seawater in Penglai 19-3 region, the largest offshore oil field of China, and polluted an area of thousands of square kilometers in the Bohai Sea. Satellite remote sensing images were collected to locate oil slicks. By performing a series of model sensitivity experiments with different wind and current forcings and comparing the model results with the satellite images, it was identified that the major errors of the long-term simulation for oilspill transport were from the wind fields, and the wind-induced surface currents. An inverse model was developed to estimate the temporal variabil-ity of emission intensity at the oilspill source, which revealed the importance of the accuracy in oilspill source emission time function.

The aim of this paper is to present a mathematical model and its numerical treatment to forecast oilspills trajectories in the sea. The knowledge of the trajectory followed by an oil slick spilled on the sea is of fundamental importance in the estimation of potential risks for pipeline and tankers route selection, and in combating the pollution using floating barriers, detergents, etc. In order to estimate these slicks trajectories a new model, based on the mass and momentum conservation equations is presented. The model considers the spreading in the regimes when the inertial and viscous forces counterbalance gravity and takes into account the effects of winds and water currents. The inertial forces are considered for the spreading and the displacement of the oil slick, i.e., is considered its effects on the movement of the mass center of the slick. The mass loss caused by oil evaporation is also taken into account. The numerical model is developed in generalized coordinates, making the model easily applicable to complex coastal geographies. (author)

The oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico was documented by shoreline assessment teams as stranding on 1,773 km of shoreline. Beaches comprised 50.8%, marshes 44.9%, and other shoreline types 4.3% of the oiled shoreline. Shoreline cleanup activities were authorized on 660 km, or 73.3% of oiled beaches and up to 71 km, or 8.9% of oiled marshes and associated habitats. One year after the spill began, oil remained on 847 km; two years later, oil remained on 687 km, though at much lesser degrees of oiling. For example, shorelines characterized as heavily oiled went from a maximum of 360 km, to 22.4 km one year later, and to 6.4 km two years later. Shoreline cleanup has been conducted to meet habitat-specific cleanup endpoints and will continue until all oiled shoreline segments meet endpoints. The entire shoreline cleanup program has been managed under the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) Program, which is a systematic, objective, and inclusive process to collect data on shoreline oiling conditions and support decision making on appropriate cleanup methods and endpoints. It was a particularly valuable and effective process during such a complex spill.

Full Text Available The oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico was documented by shoreline assessment teams as stranding on 1,773 km of shoreline. Beaches comprised 50.8%, marshes 44.9%, and other shoreline types 4.3% of the oiled shoreline. Shoreline cleanup activities were authorized on 660 km, or 73.3% of oiled beaches and up to 71 km, or 8.9% of oiled marshes and associated habitats. One year after the spill began, oil remained on 847 km; two years later, oil remained on 687 km, though at much lesser degrees of oiling. For example, shorelines characterized as heavily oiled went from a maximum of 360 km, to 22.4 km one year later, and to 6.4 km two years later. Shoreline cleanup has been conducted to meet habitat-specific cleanup endpoints and will continue until all oiled shoreline segments meet endpoints. The entire shoreline cleanup program has been managed under the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT Program, which is a systematic, objective, and inclusive process to collect data on shoreline oiling conditions and support decision making on appropriate cleanup methods and endpoints. It was a particularly valuable and effective process during such a complex spill.

The oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico was documented by shoreline assessment teams as stranding on 1,773 km of shoreline. Beaches comprised 50.8%, marshes 44.9%, and other shoreline types 4.3% of the oiled shoreline. Shoreline cleanup activities were authorized on 660 km, or 73.3% of oiled beaches and up to 71 km, or 8.9% of oiled marshes and associated habitats. One year after the spill began, oil remained on 847 km; two years later, oil remained on 687 km, though at much lesser degrees of oiling. For example, shorelines characterized as heavily oiled went from a maximum of 360 km, to 22.4 km one year later, and to 6.4 km two years later. Shoreline cleanup has been conducted to meet habitat-specific cleanup endpoints and will continue until all oiled shoreline segments meet endpoints. The entire shoreline cleanup program has been managed under the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) Program, which is a systematic, objective, and inclusive process to collect data on shoreline oiling conditions and support decision making on appropriate cleanup methods and endpoints. It was a particularly valuable and effective process during such a complex spill. PMID:23776444

Viscosity plays an important role in dispersion of spilled surface oil, so does adding chemical dispersants. For seven different oil grades, entrainment rate and initial droplet size distribution were investigated using a plunging jet apparatus with coupled camera equipment and subsequent image analysis. We found that amount of oil entrained is proportional to layer thickness and largely independent of oil properties: A dispersant dose of 1:200 did not result in a significantly different entrainment rate compared to no dispersants. Oil viscosity had a minor to no influence on entrainment rate, until a certain threshold above which entrainment was impeded. The mean droplet size scales with the modified Weber number as described by Johansen. The obtained results can help improve dispersion algorithms in oilspill fate and transport models, to aid making an informed decision about application of dispersants.

The BP Macondo oil field spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest oilspill in U.S. history and has the potential to impact sea turtle and marine mammal populations, and others. This presentation will review the genotoxic effects of oil exposure in wildlife and discuss the potential for an oilspill to impact wildlife populations. Whereas some aspects of a spill are predictable, each spill is different because oils are highly variable, as are the environments in which they occur. The presentation will discuss what has been learned from previous spills, including the Exxon Valdez and the soviet oil legacy in Azerbaijan, and the potential dangers of offshore oil development in the Arctic. Related Purdue University research efforts in oil-spill related engineering and science also will be highlighted.

Discharge of oil into the sea is one of the most dangerous, among technological hazards, for the maritime environment. In the last years maritime transport and exploitation of marine resources continued to increase; as a result, tanker accidents are nowadays increasingly frequent, continuously menacing the maritime security and safety. Satellite remote sensing could contribute in multiple ways, in particular for what concerns early warning and real-time (or near real-time) monitoring. Several satellite techniques exist, mainly based on the use of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology, which are able to recognise, with sufficient accuracy, oilspills discharged into the sea. Unfortunately, such methods cannot be profitably used for real-time detection, because of the low observational frequency assured by present satellite platforms carrying SAR sensors (the mean repetition rate is something like 30 days). On the other hand, potential of optical sensors aboard meteorological satellites, was not yet fully exploited and no reliable techniques have been developed until now for this purpose. Main limit of proposed techniques can be found in the ``fixed threshold'' approach which makes such techniques difficult to implement without operator supervision and, generally, without an independent information on the oilspill presence that could drive the choice of the best threshold. A different methodological approach (RAT, Robust AVHRR Techniques) proposed by Tramutoli (1998) and already successfully applied to several natural and environmental emergencies related to volcanic eruptions, forest fires and seismic activity. In this paper its extension to near real-time detection and monitoring of oilspills by means of NOAA-AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) records will be described. Briefly, RAT approach is an automatic change-detection scheme that considers a satellite image as a space-time process, described at each place (x,y) and time t, by the value of

The bibliography contains citations concerning the biodegradation, bioremediation, and bioreclamation of oilspills. Effectiveness and regulatory issues in oilspill control on lands, on water surface, and underwater are discussed. Topics include in-situ bioremediation, dispersants, gasoline spills from underground storage tanks, beach and harbor clean-up, groundwater pollution, and soil pollution. (Contains 50-250 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.) (Copyright NERAC, Inc. 1995)

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill led to rapid microbial community shifts in the Gulf of Mexico, including the formation of unprecedented quantities of marine oil snow (MOS) and of a massive subsurface oil plume. The major taxa that bloomed in sea surface oil slicks during the spill included Cycloclasticus, and to a lesser extent Halomonas, Alteromonas, and Pseudoalteromonas-organisms that grow and degrade oil hydrocarbons aerobically. Here, we show that sea surface oil slicks at DWH contained obligate and facultative anaerobic taxa, including members of the obligate anaerobic phylum Fusobacteria that are commonly found in marine sediment environments. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed that Fusobacteria were strongly selected for when sea surface oil slicks were allowed to develop anaerobically. These organisms have been found in oil-contaminated sediments in the Gulf of Mexico, in deep marine oil reservoirs, and other oil-contaminated sites, suggesting they have putative hydrocarbon-degrading qualities. The occurrence and strong selection for Fusobacteria in a lab-based incubation of a sea surface oil slick sample collected during the spill suggests that these organisms may have become enriched in anaerobic zones of suspended particulates, such as MOS. Whilst the formation and rapid sinking of MOS is recognised as an important mechanism by which a proportion of the Macondo oil had been transported to the sea floor, its role in potentially transporting microorganisms, including oil-degraders, from the upper reaches of the water column to the seafloor should be considered. The presence of Fusobacteria on the sea surface-a highly oxygenated environment-is intriguing, and may be explained by the vertical upsurge of oil that provided a carrier to transport these organisms from anaerobic/micro-aerophilic zones in the oil plume or seabed to the upper reaches of the water column. We also propose that the formation of rapidly-sinking MOS may have re-transported these

This paper presents an innovative web-based decision support system to facilitate emergency management in the case of oilspill accidents, called WITOIL (Where Is The Oil). The system can be applied to create a forecast of oilspill events, evaluate uncertainty of the predictions, and calculate hazards based on historical meteo-oceanographic datasets. To compute the oil transport and transformation, WITOIL uses the MEDSLIK-II oilspill model forced by operational meteo-oceanographic services. Results of the modeling are visualized through Google Maps. A special application for Android is designed to provide mobile access for competent authorities, technical and scientific institutions, and citizens.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill was unprecedented in total loading of petroleum hydrocarbons accidentally released to a marine ecosystem. Controversial application of chemical dispersants presumably accelerated microbial consumption of oil components, especially in warm Gulf of Mexico surface waters. We employed δ13C as a tracer of oil-derived carbon to resolve two periods of isotopic carbon depletion in two plankton size classes. Carbon depletion was coincident with the arrival of surface oil slicks in the far northern Gulf, and demonstrated that subsurface oil carbon was incorporated into the plankton food web.

This paper introduces the development of a methodology for performance of oilspill risk analysis in coastal zones through a prototype application. The main objective of the research effort is to develop the basis for a tool that can assess risks due to the occurrence of an oilspill event aiming at

This study investigated children's moral and ecological conceptions and values about an actual, environmentally destructive accident, the large oilspill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989. Sixty children from second, fifth, and eighth grades were interviewed on children's reasoning and understandings about the oilspill which…

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... From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon OilSpill and Offshore Drilling; Correction AGENCY: Office..., 2010, of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon OilSpill and Offshore Drilling, (75...

More than 2 y have passed since the BP-Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico, yet we still have little understanding of its ecological impacts. Examining effects of this oilspill will generate much-needed insight into how shoreline habitats and the valuable ecological services they

This paper introduces the development of a methodology for performance of oilspill risk analysis in coastal zones through a prototype application. The main objective of the research effort is to develop the basis for a tool that can assess risks due to the occurrence of an oilspill event aiming at

More than 2 y have passed since the BP-Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico, yet we still have little understanding of its ecological impacts. Examining effects of this oilspill will generate much-needed insight into how shoreline habitats and the valuable ecological services they prov

Full Text Available The present review summarizes the literature on the effects of oilspill on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastal vegetation including freshwater-, brackish-, and salt-marshes. When in contact with plant tissues, oil may have adverse impacts via physical and chemical effects. Oil may also become detrimental to plants by covering soil surfaces, leading to root oxygen stress and/or penetrate into the soil where it becomes in contact with the roots. The affected vegetation may survive the impact by producing new leaves, however, an episode of oilspill may impose severe stress. Oilspills may lead to partial or complete plant death but in many situations plants recover by regenerating new shoots. Plant sensitivity to oil varies among species; plants from salt marshes appear to be more sensitive than freshwater species. In addition, sensitivity appears to be dependent on the oil characteristics and the quantity of oil being spilled, repeated oiling events, season of spill, greenhouse vs. field conditions, and plant age are among the many factors that interact simultaneously. Many aspects of coastal plant responses to oiling remain in need of additional research, including the possibility that differences in oil sensitivity may interact with changes in the environment, and contribution to additional wetland losses through coastal erosion. Environmental stressors such as drought and salinity may also interact with oil, leading to the observed changes in plant species community composition following an oilspill.

Extensive experiments with in situ incineration were performed on a desert site at the University of Arizona with very striking results. The largest incinerator, 6 feet in diameter with a 30 foot chimney, developed combustion temperatures of 3000, F, and attendant soot production approximately 1000 times less than that produced by conventional in situ burning. This soot production, in fact, is approximately 30 times less than current allowable EPA standards for incinerators and internal combustion engines. Furthermore, as a consequence of the high temperature combustion, the bum rate was established at a very high 3400 gallons per hour for this particular 6 foot diameter structure. The rudimentary design studies we have carried out relative to a seagoing 8 foot diameter incinerator have predicted that a continuous burn rate of 7000 gallons per hour is realistic. This structure was taken as a basis for operational design because it is compatible with C130 flyability, and will be inexpensive enough ($120,000 per copy) to be stored at those seaside depots throughout the US coast line in which the requisite ancillary equipments (booms, service tugs, etc.) are already deployed. The LOX experiments verified our expectations with respect to combustion of debris and various highly weathered or emulsified oils. We have concluded, however, that the use of liquid oxygen in actual beach clean up is not promising because the very high temperatures associated with this combustion are almost certain to produce environmentally deleterious effects on the beach surface and its immediately sublying structures. However, the use of liquid oxygen augmentation for shore based and flyable incinerators may still play an important role in handing the problem of accumulated debris.

This article describes an oilspill surveillance strategy implemented in response to BP's 2010 MC252 oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. A three-pronged strategy consisted of Geographic Information System (GIS) monitoring of the surface slick, hydrodynamic modeling of the potential movement of the slick within the Basin, and weekly field reconnaissance. Our analysis was completed in near real time during the event and the results and predictions helped local responders minimize oiling impacts in Lake Pontchartrain. No prior planning was undertaken before this crisis response, and this article reports our support activities as they happened. For the GIS component, a remote sensing derived surface slick outline layer was obtained to produce near daily maps showing the slick's proximity to Lake Pontchartrain along with weather conditions and deployed response assets. This regular monitoring of the slicks' location was complemented by hydrodynamic numerical modeling that simulated the currents that determined the trajectories of oil particles. These data were ground-truthed through weekly reconnaissance trips that assessed the potential routes of oil penetration into Lake Pontchartrain for the presence of sheen, tarballs, and other oil constituents. Despite the ad hoc design and on-the-fly implementation, these three assessments provided consistent and actionable information.

Full Text Available Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs from sequestered MV Selendang Ayu oil were biologically available in 2008, 3.6 y after it was spilled along Unalaska Island, Alaska. Thermodynamically driven weathering was the most probable mechanism of organism exposure to PAHs. Alkane and PAH composition in oil changed over time as smaller constituents were preferentially lost, indicative of weathering. In contrast, composition of the largest compounds (biomarkers including triterpanes, hopanes, and steranes remained unchanged. Smaller molecules (the PAHs lost from stranded oil were observed in indigenous mussels and passive samplers deployed in July 2008. Concentration and composition of PAHs were significantly different than in a non-oiled reference area and patterns observed in mussels were repeated in passive samplers deployed in three zones (intertidal, subtidal, and water. Thus, hydrocarbons lost from one compartment (sequestered whole oil were detectable in another (mussels and passive samplers implying aqueous transfer. Quantities of mobile oil constituents were small, yielding uptake concentrations that are likely inconsequential for mussels, but the sensitivity provided by bioaccumulation and passive sampler uptake ensured that dissolved hydrocarbons were detectable.

The basic technology behind PRP is thousands of microcapsules, tiny balls of beeswax with hollow centers. Water cannot penetrate the microcapsule s cell, but oil is absorbed right into the beeswax spheres as they float on the water s surface. This way, the contaminants, chemical compounds that originally come from crude oil such as fuels, motor oils, or petroleum hydrocarbons, are caught before they settle. PRP works well as a loose powder for cleaning up contaminants in lakes and other ecologically fragile areas. The powder can be spread over a contaminated body of water or soil, and it will absorb contaminants, contain them in isolation, and dispose of them safely. In water, it is important that PRP floats and keeps the oil on the surface, because, even if oil exposure is not immediately lethal, it can cause long-term harm if allowed to settle. Bottom-dwelling fish exposed to compounds released after oilspills may develop liver disease, in addition to reproductive and growth problems. This use of PRP is especially effective for environmental cleanup in sensitive areas like coral reefs and mangroves.

Full Text Available Oilspill has become critical in some countries, especially for countries that have seas or oceans. The situation has caused damage to the environment and polluted the water. To reduce environment damage and protect life in water, plants and soil near to disaster area .Study and analysis should be carried out .The causes and factorsthat lead to the disaster of oilspill should be studied or investigated. To analyze the problem of oilspill we consider 2 algorithms. These methods help in the analysis and identification of oilspill in SAR images. Since the 1980s, satellite-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR has been investigated for early warning andmonitoring of marine oilspills to permit effective satellite surveillance in the marine environment. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR imaging system is used to monitor the marine system. Oilspill pollution plays a significant role in damaging marine ecosystem. One main advantages of SAR is that it can generate imagery under all weather conditions. Automated detection of oilspills from satellite SAR intensity imagery consists of three steps: Detection of dark spots , Extraction of features from the detected dark spots and classification of the dark spots into oilspills and look-alikes.Texture Entropy Algorithm is a method based on the utilization of texture algorithms for the discrimination of oilspill areas from the surrounding features, e.g. sea surface and look-alikes. Mahalanobis Classifier method first estimates covariance matrix and then Mahalanobis Distance is calculated for identification of oilspill or lookalike.

Oilspills are a major contributor to marine pollution. The objective of this work is to simulate the oilspill trajectory of oil released from a pipeline leaking in the Gulf of Mexico with the GNOME (General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment) model. The model was developed by NOAA (National...... the simulation, ocean currents from NCOM (Navy Coastal Ocean Model) outputs and surface wind data measured by an NDBC (National Data Buoy Center) buoy are used to drive the GNOME model. The results show good agreement between the simulated trajectory of the oilspill and synchronous observations from...... the European ENVISAT ASAR (Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar) and the Japanese ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) PALSAR (Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) images. Based on experience with past marine oilspills, about 63.0% of the oil will float and 18.5% of the oil will evaporate...

A quick-response oilspill prediction and analysis system has been developed in response to concerns about several oilspills from damaged tankers which have impacted the environment in the Sea of Japan in recent years. The system includes a meteorological data processing module, ocean circulation models for the Sea of Japan, and an oilspill fate and drift model. Physical changes resulting from the weathering process are also considered. This paper describes the application of the newly developed system in forecasting oil drifts following a spill of Bunker C fuel oil from the Belizean cargo ship Aige on March 31, 2002 near the Oki Islands. The model successfully predicted that the oil slick would drift south-east to the coast of Hyogo. It also successfully predicted that the oil leaking from the sunken vessel would spread by April 6-7 in the opposite direction and impact the shores of Dogo Island. 14 refs., 7 figs.

This paper presents a simulated marine oilspill bioremediation experiment using a bacterial consortium amended with rhamnolipids. The role of rhamnolipids in enhancing hydrocarbon biodegradation was evaluated via GC-FID and GC-MS analysis. Rhamnolipids enhanced total oil biodegradation efficiency by 5.63%, with variation in normal alkanes, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and biomakers biodegradation. The hydrocarbons biodegradation by bacteria consortium overall follows a decreasing order of PAHs>n-alkanes>biomarkers, while in different order of PAHs>biomarkers>n-alkanes when rhamnolipids was used, and the improvement in the removal efficiency by rhamnolipids follows another order of biomarkers>n-alkanes>PAHs. Rhamnolipids played a negative role in degradation of those hydrocarbons with relatively volatile property, such as n-alkanes with short chains, PAHs and sesquiterpenes with simple structure. As to the long chain normal alkanes and PAHs and biomakers with complex structure, the biosurfactant played a positive role in these hydrocarbons biodegradation.

A large fraction of atmospheric aerosols are derived from organic compounds with various volatilities. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D research aircraft made airborne measurements of the gaseous and aerosol composition of air over the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico that occurred from April to August 2010. A narrow plume of hydrocarbons was observed downwind of DWH that is attributed to the evaporation of fresh oil on the sea surface. A much wider plume with high concentrations of organic aerosol (>25 micrograms per cubic meter) was attributed to the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from unmeasured, less volatile hydrocarbons that were emitted from a wider area around DWH. These observations provide direct and compelling evidence for the importance of formation of SOA from less volatile hydrocarbons.

The physical characteristics and chemical composition of oilspill solidifiers were studied, and correlation of these properties with product effectiveness enabled determination of characteristics that are desirable in a good solidifier. The analyses revealed that the commercial products were primarily comprised of organic polymers and a few trace elements. A natural sorbent, which was composed entirely of plant based matter, was also evaluated, and it had the highest oil removal capacity, but it did not produce a solid mat-like final product. Generally, solidifiers with a carbonate group, pore size greater than 5 μm, and bulk densities lower than 0.3 g cm(-3) were found to have better efficiency and produced a cohesive rubbery final product that facilitated removal compared to sorbents. The importance of bulk density and pore size in the performance of the solidifier suggest that the primary mechanism of action was likely physical sorption.

Full Text Available In this paper, the potential of fully polarimetric L-band SAR data for detecting sea oilspills is investigated using polarimetric decompositions and texture analysis based on SVM classifier. First, power and magnitude measurements of HH and VV polarization modes and, Pauli, Freeman and Krogager decompositions are computed and applied in SVM classifier. Texture analysis is used for identification using SVM method. The texture features i.e. Mean, Variance, Contrast and Dissimilarity from them are then extracted. Experiments are conducted on full polarimetric SAR data acquired from PALSAR sensor of ALOS satellite on August 25, 2006. An accuracy assessment indicated overall accuracy of 78.92% and 96.46% for the power measurement of the VV polarization and the Krogager decomposition respectively in first step. But by use of texture analysis the results are improved to 96.44% and 96.65% quality for mean of power and magnitude measurements of HH and VV polarizations and the Krogager decomposition. Results show that the Krogager polarimetric decomposition method has the satisfying result for detection of sea oilspill on the sea surface and the texture analysis presents the good results.

Commercial shippers and regulatory agencies face the challenge of evaluating the merits of various alternative policies for the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products. This paper presented a new risk estimation and assignment methodology that assesses the risk costs for the bodies of water where shipping lanes exist. The methodology is based on historical spills and uses causal data to estimate risk cost between 2 points of reference for numerous products transported by a variety of vessels. In response to public concerns regarding the environmental impacts of accidental spills from tanker ships, laws have been imposed on companies for all costs relating to environmental damage. This measure has prompted the oil industry to take greater responsibility, but a better understanding of tanker re-routing on environmental sensitive areas is needed in order to implement detailed emergency response plans and greater safety precautions. This methodology addressed the need for an efficient maritime transportation system that provides routing for various vessels carrying different petroleum products. The risk estimation methodology successfully modeled a multi-objective, multi-commodity routing problem. 23 refs., 3 figs.

Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oilspill, petroleum-related compounds and chemical dispersants were detected in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, there was concern about the risk to human health through consumption of contaminated seafood in the region. Federal and Gulf Coast State agencies worked together on a sampling plan and analytical protocols to determine whether seafood was safe to eat and acceptable for sale in the marketplace. Sensory and chemical methods were used to measure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dispersant in >8,000 seafood specimens collected in federal waters of the Gulf. Overall, individual PAHs and the dispersant component dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate were found in low concentrations or below the limits of quantitation. When detected, the concentrations were at least two orders of magnitude lower than the level of concern for human health risk. Once an area closed to fishing was free of visibly floating oil and all sensory and chemical results for the seafood species within an area met the criteria for reopening, that area was eligible to be reopened. On April 19, 2011 the area around the wellhead was the last area in federal waters to be reopened nearly 1 y after the spill began. However, as of November 9, 2011, some state waters off the Louisiana coast (Barataria Bay and the Delta region) remain closed to fishing. PMID:22315401

The pelagic brown alga Sargassum forms an oasis of biodiversity and productivity in an otherwise featureless ocean surface. The vast pool of oil resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oilspill came into contact with a large portion of the Gulf of Mexico's floating Sargassum mats. Aerial surveys performed during and after the oilspill show compelling evidence of loss and subsequent recovery of Sargassum. Expanding on the trends observed in the aerial surveys, we conducted a series of mesocosm experiments to test the effect of oil and dispersants on the vertical position and weight of the Sargassum complex (Sargassum natans and S. fluitans), as well as on the dissolved oxygen concentrations surrounding the algae. Dispersant and dispersed-oil had significant effects on the vertical position of both species of Sargassum over a period of 72 hours. Similarly, dissolved oxygen concentrations were lowest in dispersant and dispersed-oil treatments, respectively. Cumulatively, our findings suggest three pathways for oil-spill related injury: (1) Sargassum accumulated oil on the surface exposing animals to high concentrations of contaminants; (2) application of dispersant sank Sargassum, thus removing the habitat and potentially transporting oil and dispersant vertically; and (3) low oxygen surrounded the habitat potentially stressing animals that reside in the alga. These pathways represent direct, sublethal, and indirect effects of oil and dispersant release that minimize the ecosystem services provided by floating Sargassum - the latter two effects are rarely considered in assessing impacts of oilspills or response procedures.

Full Text Available The pelagic brown alga Sargassum forms an oasis of biodiversity and productivity in an otherwise featureless ocean surface. The vast pool of oil resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oilspill came into contact with a large portion of the Gulf of Mexico's floating Sargassum mats. Aerial surveys performed during and after the oilspill show compelling evidence of loss and subsequent recovery of Sargassum. Expanding on the trends observed in the aerial surveys, we conducted a series of mesocosm experiments to test the effect of oil and dispersants on the vertical position and weight of the Sargassum complex (Sargassum natans and S. fluitans, as well as on the dissolved oxygen concentrations surrounding the algae. Dispersant and dispersed-oil had significant effects on the vertical position of both species of Sargassum over a period of 72 hours. Similarly, dissolved oxygen concentrations were lowest in dispersant and dispersed-oil treatments, respectively. Cumulatively, our findings suggest three pathways for oil-spill related injury: (1 Sargassum accumulated oil on the surface exposing animals to high concentrations of contaminants; (2 application of dispersant sank Sargassum, thus removing the habitat and potentially transporting oil and dispersant vertically; and (3 low oxygen surrounded the habitat potentially stressing animals that reside in the alga. These pathways represent direct, sublethal, and indirect effects of oil and dispersant release that minimize the ecosystem services provided by floating Sargassum - the latter two effects are rarely considered in assessing impacts of oilspills or response procedures.

Assessments of large-scale disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon oilspill, are problematic because while measurements of post-disturbance conditions are common, measurements of pre-disturbance baselines are only rarely available. Without adequate observations of pre-disaster organismal and environmental conditions, it is impossible to assess the impact of such catastrophes on animal populations and ecological communities. Here, we use long-term biological tissue records to provide pre-disaster data for a vulnerable marine organism. Keratin samples from the carapace of loggerhead sea turtles record the foraging history for up to 18 years, allowing us to evaluate the effect of the oilspill on sea turtle foraging patterns. Samples were collected from 76 satellite-tracked adult loggerheads in 2011 and 2012, approximately one to two years after the spill. Of the 10 individuals that foraged in areas exposed to surface oil, none demonstrated significant changes in foraging patterns post spill. The observed long-term fidelity to foraging sites indicates that loggerheads in the northern Gulf of Mexico likely remained in established foraging sites, regardless of the introduction of oil and chemical dispersants. More research is needed to address potential long-term health consequences to turtles in this region. Mobile marine organisms present challenges for researchers to monitor effects of environmental disasters, both spatially and temporally. We demonstrate that biological tissues can reveal long-term histories of animal behavior and provide critical pre-disaster baselines following an anthropogenic disturbance or natural disaster.

Assessments of large-scale disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon oilspill, are problematic because while measurements of post-disturbance conditions are common, measurements of pre-disturbance baselines are only rarely available. Without adequate observations of pre-disaster organismal and environmental conditions, it is impossible to assess the impact of such catastrophes on animal populations and ecological communities. Here, we use long-term biological tissue records to provide pre-disaster data for a vulnerable marine organism. Keratin samples from the carapace of loggerhead sea turtles record the foraging history for up to 18 years, allowing us to evaluate the effect of the oilspill on sea turtle foraging patterns. Samples were collected from 76 satellite-tracked adult loggerheads in 2011 and 2012, approximately one to two years after the spill. Of the 10 individuals that foraged in areas exposed to surface oil, none demonstrated significant changes in foraging patterns post spill. The observed long-term fidelity to foraging sites indicates that loggerheads in the northern Gulf of Mexico likely remained in established foraging sites, regardless of the introduction of oil and chemical dispersants. More research is needed to address potential long-term health consequences to turtles in this region. Mobile marine organisms present challenges for researchers to monitor effects of environmental disasters, both spatially and temporally. We demonstrate that biological tissues can reveal long-term histories of animal behavior and provide critical pre-disaster baselines following an anthropogenic disturbance or natural disaster.

@@ Drilling rig Decpwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, leased by BP PLC from Transocean Ltd., ex-ploded and caught on fire on April 20, 2010. The drilling location is at some 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of Louisiana, USA. The rig sank on April 22. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from the blown-out undersea well. As reported by US Today and Calgary Herald on July 3, an estimated 35 000 to 60 000 barrels of oil per day has been gush-ing out of the ruptured well into the Gulf. That means amounts to a total of 1.9 to 3.6 million barrels of oil so far have gushed into the Gulf. Using the high end of that estimate, the spill has now surpassed the 1979 Ixtoc blowout, which took nine months to cap and dumped estimated 3.3 million barrels (140 000 million gallons) into the Gulf of Mexico. It is topped only by the deliberate release of six to eight million barrels of crude oil by Iraqi troops who destroyed tankers and oil terminals and set wells ablaze in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War.

Oilspill experiment results in the coastal waters of Diu, India, with an airborne DLR ESAR sensor are discussed with reference to the SAR frequency, polarization and viewing angle. The SAR data acquired in the quad polarization of the L band and dual polarization of the C band over two spills are studied. A higher oil and water contrast is observed in the L-VV polarization than in the C-HH mode. Oilspill discrimination is possible over a wider view angle of the airborne SAR sensor data in L band than in C band. This study has also analyzed the spread and drift of oil in coastal waters.

The paper presents analyses the pollution and the spills distribution and presents the results of the experiment on the use of the oilspill elimination means with the foam concrete application. The studies have shown that in the medium term the pipeline transportation accidents, the number of spills and the environmental pollution increase is expected. In addition, studies have shown that the application of the foam concrete with a D 600 density is considered to be the most effective way of the oilspill elimination.

Marine oilspills constitute an environmental disaster with severe adverse effects on the economy and ecosystem. Phase-selective organogelators (PSOGs), molecules that can congeal oil selectively from oil-water mixtures, have been proposed to be useful for oil-spill recovery. However, a major drawback lies in the mode of application of the PSOG to an oilspill spread over a large area. The proposed method of using carrier solvents is impractical for various reasons. Direct application of the PSOG as a solid, although it would be ideal, is unknown, presumably owing to poor dispersion of the solid through the oil. We have designed five cheap and easy-to-make glucose-derived PSOGs that disperse in the oil phase uniformly when applied as a fine powder. These gelators were shown to selectively congeal many oils, including crude oil, from oil-water mixtures to form stable gels, which is an essential property for efficient oil-spill recovery. We have demonstrated that these PSOGs can be applied aerially as a solid powder onto a mixture of crude oil and sea water and the congealed oil can then be scooped out. Our innovative mode of application and low cost of the PSOG offers a practical solution to oil-spill recovery.

Integration of oilspill modeling with coastal resource information could be useful for protecting the coastal environment from oilspills. A scenario-based risk assessment and sensitivity indexing were performed for the Chennai coast by integrating a coastal resource information system and an oilspill trajectory model. The fate analysis of spilledoil showed that 55% of oil out of a total volume of 100m(3) remained in the water column, affecting 800m of the shoreline. The seasonal scenarios show major impact during the southwest (SW) and northeast (NE) monsoons and more fatal effects on marine pelagic organisms during SW monsoon. The OilSpill Risk Assessment Modeler tool was constructed in a geographic information systems (GIS) platform to analyze the risks, sensitivity mapping, and priority indexing of resources that are likely to be affected by oilspills along the Chennai coast. The results of sensitivity mapping and the risk assessment results can help organizations take measures to combat oilspills in a timely manner.

Full Text Available Oilspills have significant negative effects on the environment in which they occur, including damage to aquatic, aerial and terrestrial life. In the oil-producing Niger Delta, oil spillage is largely due to pipeline corrosion and crude oil theft and sabotage. This paper explores the feasibility of utilizing small mobile robots for early detection of ground oil leakage, a methodology defined as Ground Robotic OilSpill Surveillance (GROSS. GROSS robot was constructed using iRobot Create, element serial Bluetooth Adapter Module (BAM and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG sensor, and programmed using MATLAB to patrol a pipeline route 5 m in length. To simulate oilspills, varying volumes of gasoline - 30, 59, 118, 236, 354, 472, 590, and 708 ml – were placed along the pipeline route prior to the robot‟s patrol. GROSS robot demonstrated capability of detecting spills as little as 0.2, 0.5, and 0.7 liters when running at 100, 200, and 300 mm/s respectively. Detection distance between LPG sensor and spill ranged from 76 – 157 cm. GROSS robots could assist in early detection of oilspills. Future work includes improvement in GROSS robot design and determining the effect of soil absorption and API density on the robot‟s ability to detect spills.

An important aspect of oilspill science is understanding how the compounds within spilledoil, especially toxic components, change with weathering. In this study we follow the evolution of petroleum hydrocarbons, including n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkylated PAHs, on a Louisiana beach and salt marsh for three years following the Deepwater Horizon spill. Relative to source oil, we report overall depletion of low molecular weight n-alkanes and PAHs in all locations with time. The magnitude of depletion, however, depends on the sampling location, whereby sites with highest wave energy have highest compound depletion. Oiled sediment from an enclosed bay shows high enrichment of high molecular weight PAHs relative to 17α(H),21β(H)-hopane, suggesting the contribution from sources other than the Deepwater Horizon spill, such as fossil fuel burning. This insight into hydrocarbon persistence as a function of hydrography and hydrocarbon source can inform policy and response for future spills.

Small or large oilspills resulting from accidents on oil and gas platforms or due to the maritime traffic comprise a major environmental threat for all marine and coastal systems, and they are responsible for huge economic losses concerning the human infrastructures and the tourism. This work aims at presenting the integration of oil-spill model, bathymetric, meteorological, oceanographic, geomorphological and geological data to assess the impact of oilspills in maritime regions such as bays, as well as in the open sea, carried out in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea within the frame of NEREIDs, MEDESS-4MS and RAOP-Med EU projects. The MEDSLIK oilspill predictions are successfully combined with bathymetric analyses, the shoreline susceptibility and hazard mapping to predict the oil slick trajectories and the extend of the coastal areas affected. Based on MEDSLIK results, oilspill spreading and dispersion scenarios are produced both for non-mitigated and mitigated oilspills. MEDSLIK model considers three response combating methods of floating oilspills: a) mechanical recovery using skimmers or similar mechanisms; b) destruction by fire, c) use of dispersants or other bio-chemical means and deployment of booms. Shoreline susceptibility map can be compiled for the study areas based on the Environmental Susceptibility Index. The ESI classification considers a range of values between 1 and 9, with level 1 (ESI 1) representing areas of low susceptibility, impermeable to oil spilt during accidents, such as linear shorelines with rocky cliffs. In contrast, ESI 9 shores are highly vulnerable, and often coincide with natural reserves and special protected areas. Additionally, hazard maps of the maritime and coastal areas, possibly exposed to the danger on an oilspill, evaluate and categorize the hazard in levels from low to very high. This is important because a) Prior to an oilspill accident, hazard and shoreline susceptibility maps are made available to design

We present worst-case assessments of contamination in sea ice and surface waters resulting from hypothetical well blowout oilspills at ten sites in the Arctic Ocean basin. Spill extents are estimated by considering Eulerian passive tracers in the surface ocean of the MITgcm (a hydrostatic, coupled ice-ocean model). Oil in sea ice, and contamination resulting from melting of oiled ice, is tracked using an offline Lagrangian scheme. Spills are initialized on November 1st 1980-2010 and tracked for one year. An average spill was transported 1100km and potentially affected 1.1 million km(2). The direction and magnitude of simulated oil trajectories are consistent with known large-scale current and sea ice circulation patterns, and trajectories frequently cross international boundaries. The simulated trajectories of oil in sea ice match observed ice drift trajectories well. During the winter oil transport by drifting sea ice is more significant than transport with surface currents.

Mangrove tidal wetland habitats are recognised as highly vulnerable to large and chronic oilspills. This review of current literature and public databases covers the last 6 decades, summarising global data on oilspill incidents affecting, or likely to have affected, mangrove habitat. Over this period, there have been at least 238 notable oilspills along mangrove shorelines worldwide. In total, at least 5.5milliontonnes of oil has been released into mangrove-lined, coastal waters, oiling possibly up to around 1.94millionha of mangrove habitat, and killing at least 126,000ha of mangrove vegetation since 1958. However, there were assessment limitations with incomplete and unavailable data, as well as unequal coverage across world regions. To redress the gaps described here in reporting on oilspill impacts on mangroves and their recovery worldwide, a number of recommendations and suggestions are made for refreshing and updating standard operational procedures for responders, managers and researchers alike.

Rapid growth in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) has produced jobs, revenue, and energy, but also concerns over spills and environmental risks. We assessed spill data from 2005 to 2014 at 31 481 UOG wells in Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. We found 2–16% of wells reported a spill each year. Median spill volumes ranged from 0.5 m3 in Pennsylvania to 4.9 m3 in New Mexico; the largest spills exceeded 100 m3. Seventy-five to 94% of spills occurred within the first three years of well life when wells were drilled, completed, and had their largest production volumes. Across all four states, 50% of spills were related to storage and moving fluids via flowlines. Reporting rates varied by state, affecting spill rates and requiring extensive time and effort getting data into a usable format. Enhanced and standardized regulatory requirements for reporting spills could improve the accuracy and speed of analyses to identify and prevent spill risks and mitigate potential environmental damage. Transparency for data sharing and analysis will be increasingly important as UOG development expands. We designed an interactive spills data visualization tool (http://snappartnership.net/groups/hydraulic-fracturing/webapp/spills.html) to illustrate the value of having standardized, public data.

Fate and transport of spilled petroleum oils in aquatic environments is highly dependent upon oil droplet behavior which is a function of chemical composition, dispersibility (natural and chemically-enhanced) and droplet size distribution (DSD) of the oil. DSD is influenced by mixing energy, temperature, salinity, pressure, presence of dissolved and particulate materials, flow rate of release, and application of dispersants. To better understand DSD and droplet behavior under varying physical conditions, flask-scale experiments are often insufficient. Rather, wave tank simulations allow for scaling to field conditions. Presented here are experiment results from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography wave tank facility, where chemically-dispersed (Corexit 9500; DOR = 1:20) Louisiana Sweet crude, IFO-120 and ANS crude oil were exposed to mixing energies to achieve dispersant effectiveness observed in the field. Oil plumes were simulated, both surface and subsea releases with varying water temperature and flow rate. Fluorometers (Chelsea Technologies Group AQUATracka, Turner Designs Cyclops, WET Labs Inc ECO) and particle size analyzers (Sequoia LISST) were used to track the dispersed plumes in the tank and characterize oil droplets. Sensors were validated with known oil volumes (down to 300 ppb) and measured Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) and Benzene-Toluene-Ethylbenzene-Xylene (BTEX) values. This work has large implications for tracking surface and deep sea oil plumes with fluorescence and particle size analyzers, improved weathering and biodegradation estimates, and understanding the fate and transport of spilloil.

This power point presentation addressed the issue of recent oilspills on Prince Edward Island (PEI) with a critical examination of the Home Heat Tank Program in the province and how insurance companies, banks and real estate industry are dealing with the problem of oilspill contamination. The number of above ground domestic home heating tank spills continues to remain high and have been increasing in the past 10 years. This is due in part to improper installations which are essentially putting the safety of many homeowners and the environment at risk. It was noted that in Prince Edward Island, home heat tank installations do not have to be performed by qualified persons. Therefore, in order to save money, many home owners cut corners. Most improper installations are attributed to people who are not aware of proper guidelines and do not follow proper requirements and guidelines. In 1999 there were 208 domestic oilspills reported in PEI, of which 125 involved 17 tons or less of contaminated soil, 62 involved 51 tons of contaminated soil and 21 involved 51 tons or more of contaminated soil. The cost of cleanup for the latter was in the tens of thousands of dollars. It was recommended that this problem should be addressed in a 4 phase approach involving stakeholder consultation, public education, program assessment and regulation amendments. 37 figs.

The ongoing oilspill from the blown-out well by the name of Macondo, drilled by the ill-fated rig Deepwater Horizon, has many features in common with another blowout in the Mexican Gulf that happened three decades ago. Then the oil gushed out from the Ixtoc I well drilled by the Sedco 135-F semi-submersible rig. In the years between these catastrophes, the source and nature of oilspills have undergone large changes. Huge spills from tankers that ran aground or collided used to be what caught the headlines and caused large ecological damage. The number and size of such accidental spills have decreased significantly. Instead, spills from ageing, ill-maintained or sabotaged pipelines have increased, and places like Arctic Russia, the Niger Delta, and the northwestern Amazon have become sites of reoccurring oil pollution. As for blowouts, there is no clear trend with regard to the number of incidences or amounts of spilledoil, but deepwater blowouts are much harder to cap and thus tend to go on longer and result in the release of larger quantities of oil. Also, oil exploration and extraction is moving into ever-deeper water and into stormier and icier seas, increasing potential risks. The risk for reoccurring spills like the two huge Mexican Gulf ones is eminent and must be reduced.

The Prestige-Nassau tanker ship spilled about 10,000 tons of oil off the coast of Spain on November 13, 2002 during a severe storm. On November 19, the ship split in half and sank 133 nautical miles from the Galician coast to a depth of 3,500 metres, spilling another 20,000 tons of oil. The Galician government set up an Office of Nearshore Surveillance and recruited people from the Galician Regional Meteorological Service and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography to monitor the slick and forecast its trajectory. The main spill arrived at Galicia on November 30, damaging most of the coast. A variety of models that combined surface wind drift and ocean currents were used to forecast the movement of the spill. These included the Mothy from MeteoFrance, and DERIVA from the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute. Two models were also developed by MeteoGalicia and MAETEC. The path followed by the oilspill was classified in three parts. The first spill of 10,000 tons took place from November 13 until the ship split in two. The second spill of around 20,000 tons of oil occurred when the ship sank on November 19. The last spill includes oil that continued to leak from the sunken tanker at a rate of 125 tons per day. The trajectory predictions were found to be in good agreement with aerial observations. 24 refs., 10 figs.

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Deepwater Horizon disaster was the largest marine oilspill in history, and total vertical exposure of oil to the water column suggests it could impact an enormous diversity of ecosystems. The most vulnerable organisms are those encountering these pollutants during their early life stages. Water-soluble components of crude oil and specific polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been shown to cause defects in cardiovascular and craniofacial development in a variety of teleost species, but the developmental origins of these defects have yet to be determined. We have adopted zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model to test whether water accumulated fractions (WAF of the Deepwater Horizon oil could impact specific embryonic developmental processes. While not a native species to the Gulf waters, the developmental biology of zebrafish has been well characterized and makes it a powerful model system to reveal the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind Macondo crude toxicity. Results WAF of Macondo crude oil sampled during the oilspill was used to treat zebrafish throughout embryonic and larval development. Our results indicate that the Macondo crude oil causes a variety of significant defects in zebrafish embryogenesis, but these defects have specific developmental origins. WAF treatments caused defects in craniofacial development and circulatory function similar to previous reports, but we extend these results to show they are likely derived from an earlier defect in neural crest cell development. Moreover, we demonstrate that exposure to WAFs causes a variety of novel deformations in specific developmental processes, including programmed cell death, locomotor behavior, sensory and motor axon pathfinding, somitogenesis and muscle patterning. Interestingly, the severity of cell death and muscle phenotypes decreased over several months of repeated analysis, which was correlated with a rapid drop-off in the aromatic and alkane

A series of experiments in Willapa Bay, Washington, indicates the degree to which the presence of spilledoil modifies the burrowing behavior of infauna and the extent to which the animals redistribute oil into intertidal sediment. Small amounts of North Slope crude oil introduced at low tide directly into burrow openings (mostly made by the crustacean Callianassa) resulted in a limited and temporary reduction in the number of burrow openings. In contrast, a layer of oil-saturated sand 1 cm thick buried about 5 cm below the sediment surface sharply reduced the number of burrow openings. After a year, the few new burrows penetrated only the margins of the experimental plot, and bioturbation below the buried oil-saturated sand layer declined dramatically. The experiments suggest that small amounts of oil temporarily stranded by tides in themselves have no long-range effect on burrowing behavior. The fauna, however, are capable of introducing measurable amounts of oil into the subsurface, where it is retained long after the rest of the stranded oil had washed away. A buried layer of oil-saturated sand greatly reduces infaunal activity; the oil presents an effective barrier that can persist for years. The oil incorporated into the sediment from burrow openings showed evidence of degradation after 7 months. In contrast the layer of buried oil remained essentially undergraded after a period of two years, even though oil in lower concentrations above the layer was degraded after a period of one year. This variation in degree of degradation of the buried oil, as well as the heterogeneity of oil distribution wherever the oil has been incorporated from the surface, emphasises the importance of careful sampling in any attempt to locate or monitor the presence of spilledoil in the substrate.In a series of experiments in Willapa Bay, Washington, small amounts of North Slope crude oil introduced at low tide directly into burrow openings resulted in a limited and temporary

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 ( OPA'') and an even more problematic array of State pollution laws have raised the cost, and risk, of carrying oil into and out of the US. This report, prepared under contract to the US Department of energy's Office of Domestic and International Policy, examines the impact of Federal and State oilspill legislation on the tanker market. It reviews the role of marine transportation in US oil supply, explores the OPA and State oilspill laws, studies reactions to OPA in the tanker and tank barge industries and in related industries such as insurance and ship finance, and finally, discusses the likely developments in the years ahead. US waterborne oil imports amounted to 6.5 million B/D in 1991, three-quarters of which was crude oil. Imports will rise by almost 3 million B/D by 2000 according to US Department of energy forecasts, with most of the crude oil growth after 1995. Tanker demand will grow even faster: most of the US imports and the increased traffic to other world consuming regions will be on long-haul trades. Both the number of US port calls by tankers and the volume of offshore lightering will grow. Every aspect of the tanker industry's behavior is affected by OPA and a variety of State pollution laws.

This oilspill sensitivity atlas covers the shoreline and the offshore areas of South Greenland between 56º30' N and 62º N. The coastal zone is divided into 220 areas and the offshore zone into 6 areas. For each area a sensitivity index value is calculated, and each area is subsequently ranked...... according to four degrees of sensitivity. Besides this general ranking a number of smaller sites are especially selected as: they are of particular significance, they are particularly vulnerable to oilspill and because effective oilspill response may be performed. The shoreline sensitivity ranking...

This oilspill sensitivity atlas covers the shoreline and the offshore areas of West Greenland between 75º N and 77º N. The coastal zone is divided into 53 shoreline segments, and the offshore zone into 4 areas. A sensitivity index value is calculated for each segment/area, and each segment....../area is subsequently ranked according to four degrees of sensitivity. Besides this general ranking, a number of smaller areas are especially selected, as they are of particular significance. They are especially vulnerable to oilspills and they have a size making oilspill response possible. The shoreline sensitivity...

The ongoing oilspill from the blown-out well by the name of Macondo, drilled by the ill-fated rig Deepwater Horizon, has many features in common with another blowout in the Mexican Gulf that happened three decades ago. Then the oil gushed out from the Ixtoc I well drilled by the Sedco 135-F semi-submersible rig. In the years between these catastrophes, the source and nature of oilspills have undergone large changes. Huge spills from tankers that ran aground or collided used to be what caugh...

Full Text Available The focus of the research is the significance of dependence for communities to survive and adapt in times of environmental disasters. It shifts the emphasis on self-reliant communities for survival and examines the types and effects of dependence and external linkages by analyzing the range of community responses that include initial responses, early social impact, compensation, and conflicts after the Hebei-Spirit oilspill in December 2007 in Korea. The findings reveal that dependence is necessary, and the effects of dependence can be both positive and negative depending on the relations between external entities and affected communities as well as the community capacity to absorb resources and information.

Full Text Available The persistence of communities along Louisiana’s coast, despite centuries of natural and technological hazard events, suggests an enduring resilience. This paper employs a comparative historical analysis to examine “inherent resilience,” i.e., practices that natural resource-dependent residents deploy to cope with disruptions and that are retained in their collective memory. The analysis classifies activities taken in advance of and following a series of oilspills within Wilbanks’ four elements of community resilience: anticipation, reduced vulnerability, response, and recovery. Comparing local inherent resilience to formal government and corporate resilience enables the identification of strengths and weaknesses of these different categories of resilience. It also helps answer the questions: What forms of inherent resilience capacity existed prior to the formulation of formal contingency plans? How have communities drawn upon their own capabilities to survive without the infusion of massive external assistance? Have externally managed contingency planning procedures integrated or bypassed inherent resilience?

An analysis of the effects of potential oilspills will provide data in support of decisions related to improving the response to oilspills and its emergency management. We selected the Chinese Bohai Sea, especially the Bohai Strait, as our investigation region to provide an assessment of the effects of pollution from ship-related oilspills on adjacent coastal zones. Ship-related accidents are one of the major factors causing potential oilspills in this area. A three dimensional oil transport and transformation model was developed using the Estuary, Coastal, and Ocean Model. This proposed model was run 90 times and each run lasted for 15days to simulate the spread and weathering processes of oil for each of four potential spill sites, which represented potential sites of ship collisions along heavy traffic lanes in the Bohai Sea. Ten neighboring coastal areas were also considered as target zones that potentially could receive pollutants once oilspilled in the study areas. The statistical simulations showed that spills in winter were much worse than those in summer; they resulted in very negative effects on several specific target zones coded Z7, Z8, Z9, and Z10 in this paper. In addition, sites S3 (near the Penglai city) and S4 (near the Yantai city) were the two most at-risk sites with a significantly high probability of pollution if spills occurred nearby during winter. The results thus provided practical guidelines for local oilspill prevention, as well as an emergency preparedness and response program.

We present new mathematical and geological models to assist civil protection authorities in the mitigation of potential oilspill accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Oilspill simulations for 19 existing offshore wells were carried out based on novel and high resolution bathymetric, meteorological, oceanographic, and geomorphological data. The simulations show a trend for east and northeast movement of oilspills into the Levantine Basin, affecting the coastal areas of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Oil slicks will reach the coast in 1 to 20 days, driven by the action of the winds, currents and waves. By applying a qualitative analysis, seabed morphology is for the first time related to the direction of the oil slick expansion, as it is able to alter the movement of sea currents. Specifically, the direction of the major axis of the oilspills, in most of the cases examined, is oriented according to the prevailing azimuth of bathymetric features. This work suggests that oilspills in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea should be mitigated in the very few hours after their onset, and before wind and currents disperse them. We explain that protocols should be prioritized between neighboring countries to mitigate any oilspills.

We present new mathematical and geological models to assist civil protection authorities in the mitigation of potential oilspill accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Oilspill simulations for 19 existing offshore wells were carried out based on novel and high resolution bathymetric, meteorological, oceanographic, and geomorphological data. The simulations show a trend for east and northeast movement of oilspills into the Levantine Basin, affecting the coastal areas of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Oil slicks will reach the coast in 1 to 20 days, driven by the action of the winds, currents and waves. By applying a qualitative analysis, seabed morphology is for the first time related to the direction of the oil slick expansion, as it is able to alter the movement of sea currents. Specifically, the direction of the major axis of the oilspills, in most of the cases examined, is oriented according to the prevailing azimuth of bathymetric features. This work suggests that oilspills in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea should be mitigated in the very few hours after their onset, and before wind and currents disperse them. We explain that protocols should be prioritized between neighboring countries to mitigate any oilspills.

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior — This plan is intended to serve as a step by step guide to emergency oilspill response in the event that such a spill threatens refuge lands and wildlife. Because it...

An oilspill occurred off Goa, west coast of India, on 23 March 2005 due to collision of 2 vessels. In general, fair weather with weak winds prevails along the west coast of India during March. In that case, the spill would have moved slowly...

Deepwater spills result in oil distributed from deep in the water column to the water surface. The objective of this study was to test eight of the available dispersants (including Corexit 9500A, which was used extensively on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Spill) on South Louisiana C...

Oil is a complex mixture of numerous compounds. Therefore, oilspills near shore can cause various adverse effects on coastal ecosystems. However, most toxicological assessments conducted on oilspill sites have focused on limited modes of toxic actions. In the present study, we utilized the Escherichia coli (E. coli) live cell array system (LCA) to identify novel modes of toxicities of the oilspill-affected sediments. For this purpose, sediment samples were collected from an area heavily polluted by Hebei Spirit oilspill (HSOS) incident of 2007. A total of 93 E. coli reporter genes were used to study responses to the chemicals in the mixture. E. coli K12 strains were exposed to extracts of oil or the sediment, and changes in gene expression were measured. Exposure to extracts of crude and weathered oil resulted in decreased expression in ∼30% of tested genes. However, changes in expression observed after exposure to sediment extracts varied. Sediment extracts containing large concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) caused down-regulation of >70% of the genes, while extracts containing lesser total concentrations of PAHs exhibited different trends: genes involved in drug resistance were generally up-regulated, while genes responsive to DNA damage were up-regulated in only two extracts. Results suggest that oil pollution can modulate several toxic response pathways related to DNA repair and antibiotic responses. Results from LCA obtained from the sediment and oil samples were different from those observed in the H4IIE-luc assay. Toxicological implications of such observations deserve further examination. Overall, LCA is a promising tool for screening samples and identifying potential modes of toxicities of environmental samples associated with oilspills.

Ocean Studies Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council

2013-01-01

"As the Gulf of Mexico recovers from the Deepwater Horizon oilspill, natural resource managers face the challenge of understanding the impacts of the spill and setting priorities for restoration work...

In recent years, oilspill accidents occur frequently in the marine area of China. Finding out the spilledoil source is a key step in the relevant investigation. In this paper, a step-by-step fingerprinting identification method was used in a spilledoil accident in the Bohai Sea in 2002. Advanced chemical fingerprinting and data interpretation techniques were used to characterize the chemical composition and determine the possible sources of two spilledoil samples. The original gas chromatography -flame ionization detection (GC-FID) chromatogram of saturated hydrocarbons was compared. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS)chromatograms of aromatic hydrocarbons terpane and sterane, n-alkane and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed. The correlation analysis on diagnostic ratios was performed with Student's t-test. It is found that the oil fingerprinting of the spilledoil (designated as szl) from the polluted sand beach was identical with the suspected oil (designated as kyl) from a nearby crude oil refinery factory. They both showed the fingerprinting character of mixed oil. The oil fingerprinting of the spilledoil (designated as msl) collected from the port was significantly different from oil kyl and oil szl and was with a lubricating oil fingerprint character. The identification result not only gave support for the spilledoil investigation, but also served as an example for studying spilledoil accidents.

Full Text Available As the oilspill models are usually based on the sea surface and few researches are for submarine oilspill nowadays, the simulation for submarine pipeline oilspill is discussed by FLUENT to forecast the trajectory of oil. The coupling of pressure and velocity under unsteady-state condition is solved by pressure implicit with splitting of operator’s algorithm and the boundary condition of nonlinear free surface is solved by volume of fluid. The simulation of oil particles motion is carried out. Furthermore, the quantity and trajectory of spilledoil under different operating pressure, current velocities and wave lengths are compared and analyzed. The results show that wave and current have important effects on the location and oil film area on sea surface. The submarine diffusion scope of spilledoil is smaller with larger operating pressure or lower current velocity. With wave length increasing, the water depth influenced by wave, the scope of oil dispersion underwater and the oil film area on surface increase.

Documentation of the near- and long-term effects of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill, one of the largest environmental disasters in US history, is still ongoing. We used a novel before-after-control-impact analysis to test the hypothesis that average body size of intertidal populations of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) inhabiting impacted areas in Louisiana decreased due to increased stress/mortality related to the oilspill. Time-averaged death assemblages of oysters were used to establish a pre-spill baseline of body-size structure for four impacted and four control locations along a 350 km stretch of Louisiana's coastline. Post-spill body sizes were then measured from live oysters at each site in order to evaluate the differences in body size between oiled (i.e. impact) and unoiled (i.e. control) locations before and after the spill. Our results indicate that average body size of oysters remained relatively unchanged after the oilspill. There were also no temporal patterns in temperature, salinity or disease prevalence that could have explained our results. Together, these findings suggest that oysters either recovered rapidly following the immediate impact of the DWH oilspill, or that its impact was not severe enough to influence short-term population dynamics of the oyster beds.

In this work, a genetic algorithm is exploited for automatic detection of oilspills of small and large size. The route is achieved using arrays of RADARSAT-2 SAR ScanSAR Narrow single beam data obtained in the Gulf of Mexico. The study shows that genetic algorithm has automatically segmented the dark spot patches related to small and large oilspill pixels. This conclusion is confirmed by the receiveroperating characteristic (ROC) curve and ground data which have been documented. The ROC curve indicates that the existence of oil slick footprints can be identified with the area under the curve between the ROC curve and the no-discrimination line of 90%, which is greater than that of other surrounding environmental features. The small oilspill sizes represented 30% of the discriminated oilspill pixels in ROC curve. In conclusion, the genetic algorithm can be used as a tool for the automatic detection of oilspills of either small or large size and the ScanSAR Narrow single beam mode serves as an excellent sensor for oilspill patterns detection and surveying in the Gulf of Mexico.

The response of mesozooplankton community structure to the Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the northern Gulf of Mexico was investigated using data from a long-term plankton survey off the coast of Alabama (USA). Environmental conditions observed in the study area during the oilspill (2010) were compared to historical observations (2005-2009), to support the contention that variations observed in zooplankton assemblage structure may be attributed to the oilspill, as opposed to natural climatic or environmental variations. Zooplankton assemblage structure observed during the oilspill period (May-August) in 2010 was then compared to historical observations from the same period (2005-2009). Significant variations were detected in assemblage structure in May and June 2010, but these changes were no longer significant by July 2010. The density of ostracods, cladocerans and echinoderm larvae were responsible for most of the differences observed, but patterns differed depending on taxa and months. Many taxa had higher densities during the oilspill year, including calanoid and cyclopoid copepods, ostracods, bivalve larvae and cladocerans, among others. Although this result is somewhat surprising, it is possible that increased microbial activity related to the infusion of oil carbon may have stimulated secondary production through microbial-zooplankton trophic linkages. Overall, results suggest that, although changes in zooplankton community composition were observed during the oilspill, variations were weak and recovery was rapid.

Full Text Available In this work, a genetic algorithm is exploited for automatic detection of oilspills of small and large size. The route is achieved using arrays of RADARSAT-2 SAR ScanSAR Narrow single beam data obtained in the Gulf of Mexico. The study shows that genetic algorithm has automatically segmented the dark spot patches related to small and large oilspill pixels. This conclusion is confirmed by the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC curve and ground data which have been documented. The ROC curve indicates that the existence of oil slick footprints can be identified with the area under the curve between the ROC curve and the no-discrimination line of 90%, which is greater than that of other surrounding environmental features. The small oilspill sizes represented 30% of the discriminated oilspill pixels in ROC curve. In conclusion, the genetic algorithm can be used as a tool for the automatic detection of oilspills of either small or large size and the ScanSAR Narrow single beam mode serves as an excellent sensor for oilspill patterns detection and surveying in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill impacted Louisiana's coastal estuaries physically, chemically, and biologically. To better understand the ecological consequences of this oilspill on Louisiana estuaries, we compared the abundance and size of two Gulf shrimp species (Farfantepeneus aztecus and Litopeneus setiferus) in heavily affected and relatively unaffected estuaries, before and after the oilspill. Two datasets were used to conduct this study: data on shrimp abundance and size before the spill were available from Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF). Data on shrimp abundance and size from after the spill were independently collected by the authors and by LDWF. Using a Before-After-Control-Impact with Paired sampling (BACIP) design with monthly samples of two selected basins, we found brown shrimp to become more abundant and the mean size of white shrimp to become smaller. Using a BACIP with data on successive shrimp year-classes of multiple basins, we found both species to become more abundant in basins that were affected by the spill, while mean shrimp size either not change after the spill, or increased in both affected and unaffected basins. We conclude that following the oilspill abundances of both species increased within affected estuaries, whereas mean size may have been unaffected. We propose two factors that may have caused these results: 1) exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) may have reduced the growth rate of shrimp, resulting in a delayed movement of shrimp to offshore habitats, and an increase of within-estuary shrimp abundance, and 2) fishing closures established immediately after the spill, may have resulted in decreased fishing effort and an increase in shrimp abundance. This study accentuates the complexities in determining ecological effects of oilspills, and the need of studies on the organismal level to reveal cause-and-effect relationships of such events.

Full Text Available The Deepwater Horizon oilspill impacted Louisiana's coastal estuaries physically, chemically, and biologically. To better understand the ecological consequences of this oilspill on Louisiana estuaries, we compared the abundance and size of two Gulf shrimp species (Farfantepeneus aztecus and Litopeneus setiferus in heavily affected and relatively unaffected estuaries, before and after the oilspill. Two datasets were used to conduct this study: data on shrimp abundance and size before the spill were available from Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF. Data on shrimp abundance and size from after the spill were independently collected by the authors and by LDWF. Using a Before-After-Control-Impact with Paired sampling (BACIP design with monthly samples of two selected basins, we found brown shrimp to become more abundant and the mean size of white shrimp to become smaller. Using a BACIP with data on successive shrimp year-classes of multiple basins, we found both species to become more abundant in basins that were affected by the spill, while mean shrimp size either not change after the spill, or increased in both affected and unaffected basins. We conclude that following the oilspill abundances of both species increased within affected estuaries, whereas mean size may have been unaffected. We propose two factors that may have caused these results: 1 exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs may have reduced the growth rate of shrimp, resulting in a delayed movement of shrimp to offshore habitats, and an increase of within-estuary shrimp abundance, and 2 fishing closures established immediately after the spill, may have resulted in decreased fishing effort and an increase in shrimp abundance. This study accentuates the complexities in determining ecological effects of oilspills, and the need of studies on the organismal level to reveal cause-and-effect relationships of such events.

This paper presents a high-resolution operational forecast system for providing support to oilspill response in Belfast Lough. The system comprises an operational oceanographic module coupled to an oilspill forecast module that is integrated in a user-friendly web application. The oceanographic module is based on Delft3D model which uses daily boundary conditions and meteorological forcing obtained from COPERNICUS and from the UK Meteorological Office. Downscaled currents and meteorological forecasts are used to provide short-term oilspill fate and trajectory predictions at local scales. Both components of the system are calibrated and validated with observational data, including ADCP data, sea level, temperature and salinity measurements and drifting buoys released in the study area. The transport model is calibrated using a novel methodology to obtain the model coefficients that optimize the numerical simulations. The results obtained show the good performance of the system and its capability for oilspill forecast.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — In April 1986 a major oilspill from a ruptured storage tank at a local refinery just east of the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal polluted an area of coral...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — In April 1986 a major oilspill from a ruptured storage tank at a local refinery just east of the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal polluted an area of coral...

This oilspill sensitivity atlas covers the shoreline and the offshore areas of West Greenlandbetween 68º N and 72º N. The coastal zone is divided into nearly 200 areas and the offshorezone into 8 areas. A sensitivity index value is calculated for each area, and each area issubsequently ranked...... according to four degrees of sensitivity. Besides this general ranking anumber of smaller areas are especially selected because they are of particular significance, theyare particularly vulnerable to oilspill and, an effective oilspill response can be performed. Theshoreline sensitivity ranking is shown....... Based on all the information,appropriate oilspill response methods have been assessed for each area. Web site environmental-atlas.dmu.dk/...

This oilspill sensitivity atlas covers the shoreline and the offshore areas of West Greenland between 75º N and 77º N. The coastal zone is divided into 53 shoreline segments, and the offshore zone into 4 areas. A sensitivity index value is calculated for each segment/area, and each segment....../area is subsequently ranked according to four degrees of sensitivity. Besides this general ranking, a number of smaller areas are especially selected, as they are of particular significance. They are especially vulnerable to oilspills and they have a size making oilspill response possible. The shoreline sensitivity......, one for each season. Based on all the information, appropriate oilspill response methods have been assessed for each area...

This oilspill sensitivity atlas covers the shoreline and the offshore areas of South Greenland between 56º30' N and 62º N. The coastal zone is divided into 220 areas and the offshore zone into 6 areas. For each area a sensitivity index value is calculated, and each area is subsequently ranked...... according to four degrees of sensitivity. Besides this general ranking a number of smaller sites are especially selected as: they are of particular significance, they are particularly vulnerable to oilspill and because effective oilspill response may be performed. The shoreline sensitivity ranking...... for each season. Based on all the information, appropriate oilspill response methods have been assessed for each area. Web site: environmental-atlas.dmu.dk/...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Historical Incidents database contains reports and images from oil and chemical spills that occurred between 1968 and 2002. The database includes reports on...

The relative environmental toxicities of synthetic and biogenic surfactants used in oilspill remediation efforts are not well understood. Acute and chronic toxicities of three synthetic surfactants and three microbially produced surfactants were determined and compared in this s...

The ecological effects of oilspill in the environment were studied in Warri ... waters and sediment since hydrocarbon released into the environment sorb to the ..... could have affected the metabolic and .... performance of metal stressed major.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill in 2010, there was concern about the risk to human health through consumption of contaminated seafood from the...

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oilspill has spurred significant amounts of researches on fate, transport, and environmental impacts of oil and oil dispersants. This review critically summarizes what is understood to date about the interactions between oil, oil dispersants and sediments, their roles in developing oilspill countermeasures, and how these interactions may change in deepwater environments. Effects of controlling parameters, such as sediment particle size and concentration, organic matter content, oil properties, and salinity on oil-sediment interactions are described in detail. Special attention is placed to the application and effects of oil dispersants on the rate and extent of the interactions between oil and sediment or suspended particulate materials. Various analytical methods are discussed for characterization of oil-sediment interactions. Current knowledge gaps are identified and further research needs are proposed to facilitate sounder assessment of fate and impacts of oilspills in the marine environment.

According to a definition of GESAMP, United Nations advisory body on scientific aspects of marine protection, a marine pollution is: "direct or indirect introduction by man of substances or energy into the marine environment … which results in such deleterious effects as harm to living resources, hazard to human health, hindrance to marine activities including fishing, impairment of water quality and reduction of marine attractions". The works presented in this Special Issue stem from the need to manage the problem of marine pollution. The categories of pollutants associated with the maritime traffic are mainly hydrocarbons and chemicals. Hydrocarbon is the oil in all its forms, including the crude oil, the fuel oil, the sludges, debris and other refined products (as defined by MARPOL 73/78 Annex I (MARPOL, 1978)). An oilspill is a release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term often refers to marine oilspills, where oil is released into the open ocean or coastal waters. Oilspills include releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, and heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil. Oilspills can have devastating effects on the marine environment and can jeopardize the functional integrity of the marine ecosystem (seabirds populations, fish communities, and marine mammals), as reported in Jackson et al. (1989), Piatt and Anderson (1996), Peterson et al. (2003). While being toxic to marine life, the hydrocarbons are very difficult to clean up, and last for years in the sediment and marine environment. Discharge of cargo residues from bulk carries can pollute ports, waterways and oceans. In many instances vessels intentionally discharge illegal wastes despite foreign and domestic regulation prohibiting

On 12/18/74, a fuel oil tank at the Mizushima Refinery of Mitsubishi Oil Co. Ltd. ruptured. Most of the spilled desulfurized fuel oil was retained in the grounds of the refinery and recovered but an estimated 47,175-59,755 bbl escaped to the sea, where there are intensive fisheries and heavy marine traffic among various industrial settlements. Coastal fisheries and the fish culture industry were disrupted, but marine life recovered by the summer of 1975. The effect of the oil on the natural environment was not as great as expected, mostly due to quick and energetic work to recover the spilledoil. A discussion of the accident and its influence on the marine environment is presented including: the Seto Inland Sea; the storage tank rupture; spreading of the spilledoil; cleanup operations; damage estimates; the environment of the Seto Inland Sea, including normal biological conditions and a biological survey of the affected area; and effects of the spill, including oil content of sea water and sediment, degradation and weathering of the spilledoil, and influences of the oil on the environment.

Advances in interpretive and analytical methods have opened the possibility to improve the existing Nordtest methodology for oilspill identification which was developed in 1991 under the Nordic Council of Ministers. In 2002, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) established 2 working groups to revise the Nordtest Methodology into the following 2 CEN guidelines: (1) oilspill identification which includes waterborne and petroleum products, and (2) oilspill identification which in addition to including waterborne petroleum and petroleum products, includes analytical methodology and interpretation of results. The revised methodology includes a protocol/decision chart that has 3 tiered levels of analyses and data treatment. The methodology relies on the characterization of diagnostic ratios. The CEN working group intends to use the guidelines as a basis for a national oilspill identification protocol in each European country and for further international use. The methodology can be applied to oil samples of petrogenic origin with boiling points above 200 degrees C, such as crude oils, diesel fuel oils, residual bunker oils, lubricants, and mixtures of oily bilge and sludge samples. It is not intended for automotive gasolines or other light petroleum products. The method has been implemented in most forensic laboratories in Europe and has successfully differentiated between oils from a spill and possible pollution sources. 19 refs., 4 tabs., 10 figs.

Among the different types of marine pollution, oilspill is a major threat to the sea ecosystems. Remote sensing is used in oilspill response. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active microwave sensor that operates under all weather conditions and provides information about the surface roughness and covers large areas at a high spatial resolution. SAR is widely used to identify and track pollutants in the sea, which may be due to a secondary effect of a large natural disaster or by a man-made one . The detection of oilspill in SAR imagery relies on the decrease of the backscattering from the sea surface, due to the increased viscosity, resulting in a dark formation that contrasts with the brightness of the surrounding area. Most of the use of SAR images for oilspill detection is done by visual interpretation. Trained interpreters scan the image, and mark areas of low backscatter and where shape is a-symmetrical. It is very difficult to apply this method for a wide area. In contrast to visual interpretation, automatic detection algorithms were suggested and are mainly based on scanning dark formations, extracting features, and applying big data analysis. We propose a new algorithm that applies a nonlinear spatial filter that detects dark formations and is not susceptible to noises, such as internal or speckle. The advantages of this algorithm are both in run time and the results retrieved. The algorithm was tested in genesimulations as well as on COSMO-SkyMed images, detecting the Deep Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico (occurred on 20/4/2010). The simulation results show that even in a noisy environment, oilspill is detected. Applying the algorithm to the Deep Horizon oilspill, the algorithm classified the oilspill better than focusing on dark formation algorithm. Furthermore, the results were validated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data.

Full Text Available Among the different types of marine pollution, oilspill is a major threat to the sea ecosystems. Remote sensing is used in oilspill response. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR is an active microwave sensor that operates under all weather conditions and provides information about the surface roughness and covers large areas at a high spatial resolution. SAR is widely used to identify and track pollutants in the sea, which may be due to a secondary effect of a large natural disaster or by a man-made one . The detection of oilspill in SAR imagery relies on the decrease of the backscattering from the sea surface, due to the increased viscosity, resulting in a dark formation that contrasts with the brightness of the surrounding area. Most of the use of SAR images for oilspill detection is done by visual interpretation. Trained interpreters scan the image, and mark areas of low backscatter and where shape is a-symmetrical. It is very difficult to apply this method for a wide area. In contrast to visual interpretation, automatic detection algorithms were suggested and are mainly based on scanning dark formations, extracting features, and applying big data analysis. We propose a new algorithm that applies a nonlinear spatial filter that detects dark formations and is not susceptible to noises, such as internal or speckle. The advantages of this algorithm are both in run time and the results retrieved. The algorithm was tested in genesimulations as well as on COSMO-SkyMed images, detecting the Deep Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico (occurred on 20/4/2010. The simulation results show that even in a noisy environment, oilspill is detected. Applying the algorithm to the Deep Horizon oilspill, the algorithm classified the oilspill better than focusing on dark formation algorithm. Furthermore, the results were validated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA data.

Oilspills can cause enormous ecological and economic devastation, necessitating application of the best science and technology available, for which remote sensing plays a critical role in detection and monitoring of oilspills. The FOSTERRS interagency working group seeks to ensure that during an oilspill, remote sensing assets (satellite/aircraft) and analysis techniques are quickly, effectively and seamlessly available to oilspills responders. FOSTERRS enables cooperation between agencies with core environmental remote sensing assets and capabilities and academic and industry experts to act as an oilspill remote sensing information clearinghouse. The US government and its collaborators have a broad variety of aircraft and satellite sensors, imagery interrogation techniques and other technology that can provide indispensable remote sensing information to agencies, emergency responders and the public during an oilspill. Specifically, FOSTERRS will work to ensure that (1) suitable aircraft and satellite imagery and radar observations are quickly made available in a manner that can be integrated into oilspill detection and mitigation efforts, (2) existing imagery interrogation techniques are in the hands of those who will provide the 24 x 7 operational support and (3) efforts are made to develop new technology where the existing techniques do not provide oilspills responders with important information they need. The FOSTERRS mission goal places it in an ideal place for identification of critical technological needs, and identifying bottlenecks in technology acceptance. The core FOSTERRS team incorporates representation for operations and science for agencies with relevant instrumental and platform assets (NASA, NOAA, USGS, NRL). FOSTERRS membership will open to a wide range of end-user agencies and planned observer status from industry and academic experts, and eventually international partners. Through these collaborations, FOSTERRS facilitates interagency

An integrated chromatographic technique for petroleum analysis compatible with long-term studies of oilspills is presented. Dynamic headspace sampling and the complementary analytical techniques of gas chromatography and coupled-column liquid chromatography are utilized for quantitation of petroleum containing samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is employed for identification of individual components in these samples. Analytical data obtained from a major oilspill are presented and discussed.

Assessing the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill with a dependable baseline comparison can provide reliable insight into environmental stressors on organisms that were potentially affected by the spill. Fluctuating asymmetry (small, non-random deviations from perfect bilateral symmetry) is an informative metric sensitive to contaminants that can be used to assess environmental stress levels. For this study, the well-studied and common Gulf of Mexico estuarine fish, Menidia beryllina, was used with pre and post-oilspill collections. Comparisons of fluctuating asymmetry in three traits (eye diameter, pectoral fin length, and pelvic fin length) were made pre and post-oilspill across two sites (Old Fort Bayou and the Pascagoula River), as well as between years of collection (2011, 2012)--one and two years, respectfully, after the spill in 2010. We hypothesized that fluctuating asymmetry would be higher in post-Deepwater Horizon samples, and that this will be replicated in both study areas along the Mississippi Gulf coast. We also predicted that fluctuating asymmetry would decrease through time after the oilspill as the oil decomposed and/or was removed. Analyses performed on 1135 fish (220 pre and 915 post Deepwater Horizon) showed significantly higher post spill fluctuating asymmetry in the eye but no difference for the pectoral or pelvic fins. There was also higher fluctuating asymmetry in one of the two sites both pre and post-spill, indicating observed asymmetry may be the product of multiple stressors. Fluctuating asymmetry decreased in 2012 compared to 2011. Fluctuating asymmetry is a sensitive measure of sub lethal stress, and the observed variability in this study (pre vs. post-spill or between sites) could be due to a combination of oil, dispersants, or other unknown stressors.

Full Text Available Assessing the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill with a dependable baseline comparison can provide reliable insight into environmental stressors on organisms that were potentially affected by the spill. Fluctuating asymmetry (small, non-random deviations from perfect bilateral symmetry is an informative metric sensitive to contaminants that can be used to assess environmental stress levels. For this study, the well-studied and common Gulf of Mexico estuarine fish, Menidia beryllina, was used with pre and post-oilspill collections. Comparisons of fluctuating asymmetry in three traits (eye diameter, pectoral fin length, and pelvic fin length were made pre and post-oilspill across two sites (Old Fort Bayou and the Pascagoula River, as well as between years of collection (2011, 2012--one and two years, respectfully, after the spill in 2010. We hypothesized that fluctuating asymmetry would be higher in post-Deepwater Horizon samples, and that this will be replicated in both study areas along the Mississippi Gulf coast. We also predicted that fluctuating asymmetry would decrease through time after the oilspill as the oil decomposed and/or was removed. Analyses performed on 1135 fish (220 pre and 915 post Deepwater Horizon showed significantly higher post spill fluctuating asymmetry in the eye but no difference for the pectoral or pelvic fins. There was also higher fluctuating asymmetry in one of the two sites both pre and post-spill, indicating observed asymmetry may be the product of multiple stressors. Fluctuating asymmetry decreased in 2012 compared to 2011. Fluctuating asymmetry is a sensitive measure of sub lethal stress, and the observed variability in this study (pre vs. post-spill or between sites could be due to a combination of oil, dispersants, or other unknown stressors.

The physical redistribution of oil between the inside and outside of experimental plots can affect the results of bioremediation field studies that are conducted on shorelines contaminated by real oilspills. Because untreated oil from the surrounding beach will enter the plot, ...

This research develops an integrated environmental assessment tool for Lithuanian coastal area that takes due account of the major oilspill risks posed by the D-6 oil drilling platform, vessel traffic in the south-eastern Baltic Sea, and operation of the Butinge oil terminal. The goal of this paper

Protocols were developed and evaluated to assess the efficacy and environmental safety of commercial oilspill bioremediation agents (CBAs). Test systems that simulate oil slicks on open water or oiled sandy beaches were used to test the effectiveness of CBAs. Gravimetric and gas...

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon (MC-252) drilling platform on 20 April 2010 began a long response by the United Area Command. Previous responses to oilspills were limited in time due to the amount of oilspilled and were generally confined to the surface. Some of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in 1500 meters of water broke into smaller droplets, whose density caused much of the oil to stay within a zone from 1000 to 1300 meters depth. The remainder of the oil rose to the surface. The two primary locations of oil required a broad collection of remote sensing techniques to locate and monitor the oilspill. Surface oil was monitored primarily from the air using aircraft and satellite assets. Satellite visible, infra-red, and radar satellite imagery helped to locate oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico and help predict its movement away from the spill site. Daily over-flights by aircraft provided higher spatial and temporal resolution data that were assimilated into daily products. These remote sensing assets were able to track the surface oil, but the subsurface oil required different techniques. In addition to salinity and temperature profiles to determine the subsurface structure, fluorometry and dissolved oxygen measurements provided information related to oil and its consumption by microorganisms. Water samples collected from CTD casts were analyzed on-board and returned to on-shore laboratories.

This research develops an integrated environmental assessment tool for Lithuanian coastal area that takes due account of the major oilspill risks posed by the D-6 oil drilling platform, vessel traffic in the south-eastern Baltic Sea, and operation of the Butinge oil terminal. The goal of this paper

The Deepwater Horizon (DwH) oilspill released an estimated 4.9 million barrels (about 200 million gallons) of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico between April 20, 2010 and July 15, 2010. Though Valentine et al. has linked the elevated oil components in some sediments with the subsurface plume, the sites with fallout from the ocean surface plume has not been identified. This piece of information is critical not only for a comprehensive scientific understanding of the ecosystem response and fate of spill-related pollutants, but also for litigation purposes and future spill response and restoration planning. In this study we focus on testing the hypothesis that marine snow from the surface plume were deposited on the sea floor over a broad area. To do so, we use publicly available data generated as part of the ongoing Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process to assess the spatial distribution of petroleum hydrocarbons in the water column and deep-ocean sediments of the Gulf of Mexico. Sensitive hydrocarbon markers are used to differentiate hydrocarbons from surface plume, deep subsurface plume, and in-situ burning. Preliminary results suggest the overlapping but different falling sites of these plumes and the sedimentation process was controlled by various biological, chemical, and physical factors.

Oilspills from deep ocean blowout events motivate our study of multiphase plumes in a water column. Key to understanding the long-term fate of these plumes is the ability to predict the depth and persistence of intrusion layers. While intrusion layers from multiphase plumes have been studied under stagnant conditions, their behavior in the presence of crossflow, especially in mild crossflow, remains poorly understood. The classical classification of plume behavior identifies two regimes: crossflow-dominant and stratification-dominant--but it does not account for the interplay between the two effects, leaving the transition region unexplored. We conduct laboratory tank experiments to investigate the behavior of intrusion layers under the simultaneous action of crossflow and stratification. Our experiments use an inverted frame of reference, using glass beads with a range of sizes to simulate oil droplets. We find that crossflow creates enhanced mixing, which in turn leads to a shallower intrusion layer of the released fluid (correspondingly, a deeper layer in the case of a deep ocean blowout). We develop a mathematical formulation that extends previous models to account for crossflow effects, and use field observations to validate the analytical and experimental findings.

This work is a part of the OSCaR pilot study (OilSpill Contamination mapping in Russia). A synergetic concept for an object based and multi temporal mapping and classification system for terrestrial oilspill pollution using a test area in West Siberia is presented. An object oriented image classification system is created to map contaminated soils, vegetation and changes in the oil exploration well infrastructure in high resolution data. Due to the limited spectral resolution of Quickbird data context information and image object structure are used as additional features building a structural object knowledge base for the area. The distance of potentially polluted areas to industrial land use and infrastructure objects is utilized to classify crude oil contaminated surfaces. Additionally the potential of Landsat data for dating of oilspill events using change indicators is tested with multi temporal Landsat data from 1987, 1995 and 2001. OSCaR defined three sub-projects: (1) high resolution mapping of crude oil contaminated surfaces, (2) mapping of industrial infrastructure change, (3) dating of oilspill events using multi temporal Landsat data. Validation of the contamination mapping results has been done with field data from Russian experts provided by the Yugra State University in Khanty-Mansiyskiy. The developed image object structure classification system has shown good results for the severely polluted areas with good overall classification accuracy. However it has also revealed the need for direct mapping of hydrocarbon substances. Oilspill event dating with Landsat data was very much limited by the low spatial resolution of Landsat TM 5 data, small scale character of oilspilled surfaces and limited information about oilspill dates.

Full Text Available The issue of oilspill emergency response in north-west Russia has become increasingly important following a substantial increase in maritime transport and major offshore developments in Russian waters. This study is an initial effort to outline the public and private agencies and organizations involved in handling oilspills in the Murmansk region and the structure of the oilspill emergency response system in the region. This study examines the formal relationships between federal and regional authorities and between the different subsystems at the regional level. Due to the paucity of academic literature and public documentation on this topic, this study to a large extent bases itself on interview data. A main finding is that the regional oilspill response system has not been fully developed. It further concludes that the system lacks a clearly formulated state policy, a single governing authority and a unified structure. Finally, the study demonstrates that the agencies and organizations involved in tackling oilspill emergencies in the Murmansk region are hampered by insufficient funding, which probably reduces their preparedness to combat oilspills.

Full Text Available The increase of oilspill accidents has made significant impacts on life, property and the environment. Facing ever-increasing risk of disaster losses, how to cope with and response to large scale oilspill disaster effectively is becoming more and more important. And it is extremely onerous and arduous to develop a highly capable assessment technique to evaluate the effectiveness of emergency response system (ERS for oilspill. An ERS for oilspill is a complex and dynamic system comprising a number of elements, one of which fails to accomplish its function would result in potential adverse impacts on the whole system. Evaluating the effectiveness of the system requires the consideration of all failures identified in the system simultaneously. Aims to propose a decision-making framework, this paper uses failure mode effect and criticality analysis (FMECA to evaluate the effectiveness of ERS to make improvements in oilspill emergency management. It is achieved by analysing the components and bounds of the system, identification of generic failure modes which are considered as key factors of ERS for oilspill. And lastly a case study is demonstrated to validate the methodology framework.

Oilspill modeling is considered to be an important part of a decision support system (DeSS) for oilspill combatment and is useful for remedial action in case of accidents, as well as for designing the environmental monitoring system that is frequently set up after major accidents. Many accidents take place in coastal areas, implying that low resolution basin scale ocean models are of limited use for predicting the trajectories of an oilspill. In this study, we target the oilspill in connection with the "Full City" accident on the Norwegian south coast and compare operational simulations from three different oilspill models for the area. The result of the analysis is that all models do a satisfactory job. The "standard" operational model for the area is shown to have severe flaws, but by applying ocean forcing data of higher resolution (1.5 km resolution), the model system shows results that compare well with observations. The study also shows that an ensemble of results from the three different models is useful when predicting/analyzing oilspill in coastal areas.

Full Text Available Oilspill modeling is considered to be an important part of a decision support system (DeSS for oilspill combatment and is useful for remedial action in case of accidents, as well as for designing the environmental monitoring system that is frequently set up after major accidents. Many accidents take place in coastal areas, implying that low resolution basin scale ocean models are of limited use for predicting the trajectories of an oilspill. In this study, we target the oilspill in connection with the "Full City" accident on the Norwegian south coast and compare operational simulations from three different oilspill models for the area. The result of the analysis is that all models do a satisfactory job. The "standard" operational model for the area is shown to have severe flaws, but by applying ocean forcing data of higher resolution (1.5 km resolution, the model system shows results that compare well with observations. The study also shows that an ensemble of results from the three different models is useful when predicting/analyzing oilspill in coastal areas.

The Hydrodynamic and oilspill modeling system for Python (HyosPy) is presented as an example of a multi-model wrapper that ties together existing models, web access to forecast data and visualization techniques as part of an adaptable operational forecast system. The system is designed to automatically run a continual sequence of hindcast/forecast hydrodynamic models so that multiple predictions of the time-and-space-varying velocity fields are already available when a spill is reported. Once the user provides the estimated spill parameters, the system runs multiple oilspill prediction models using the output from the hydrodynamic models. As new wind and tide data become available, they are downloaded from the web, used as forcing conditions for a new instance of the hydrodynamic model and then applied to a new instance of the oilspill model. The predicted spill trajectories from multiple oilspill models are visualized through Python methods invoking Google MapTM and Google EarthTM functions. HyosPy is designed in modules that allow easy future adaptation to new models, new data sources or new visualization tools.

Full Text Available In Korea, more than 300 oilspill accidents occur every year. Despite the frequency, only a small pool of data is available on the initial effect of oilspill on macrobenthic fauna inhabiting rocky shores. The aim of this study was to analyze the variation of macrobenthic fauna composition and community structure on rocky shores, and understand the impact of oil on rocky shore organisms after the Hebei Spirit oilspill. Field surveys were carried out in five regions dose to the wreck site in January, April and September 2008. Polluted sites after the Hebei Spirit oilspill showed that biological index consistently decreased for 9 months limited to breeding and recruitment of organisms by spilledoil. Macrobenthic community was subdivided into 3 groups by species elimination and differences between density of major dominant species: enriched biota community under a relatively stable environment, the second with relatively low ecological index and the last with poor community. In this study, species number did not clearly reflect the effect of oil on the rare and mobile species. However, mean density, biomass and community structure showed the effect of oil by considering breeding activity, decline in recruitment and variation pattern with time.

Following two experimental spills of chemically dispersed and undispersed crude oil in shallow bays on the northwest coast of Baffin Island bivalve molluscs accumulated significant amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons in bay receiving dispersed oil and in those receiving crude oil alone. Specimens of Mya truncata and Macoma calcarea for histopathologic examination were collected immediately before, immediately after and one year after the experimental oilspills. Immediately after there was increased gill and digestive tract necrosis in Mya from the chemically dispersed oil. After one year a few clams had granulocytomas throughout the tissues. Three clams receiving oil alone collected one year after the spill had invasive neoplasias. There were few lesions in Macoma immediatelly after or one year after the spill; animals had a high incidence of vacuolization of the digestive tubule epithelium. The incidence of parasitism and hemocytic infiltration also was higher in Maccoma. Clams Mya truncata were collected for biochemical analysis before, after and two weeks after the simulated oilspills. Concentations in the clam tissues of glucose, glycogen, trehalose, total lipid, and free amino acids were measured; free amino acids in adductor muscles were the most useful indices of pollutant stress. The results of the biochemical analyses indicate that Mya were not severely stressed by either dispersed oil or oil alone. After two weeks, clams from the dispersed oil bays were nearly normal, while those from the bay receiving oil alone appeared stressed. These results seem to corroborate results that the acute effects of dispersed oil are greater than those of undispersed oil, but effects of undispersed oil on infaunal molluscs develop more slowly and persist longer than those from dispersed oil. 43 refs., 2 figs., 6 tabs.

In response to the Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico, a method of near-infrared imaging spectroscopic analysis was developed to map the locations of thick oil floating on water. Specifically, this method can be used to derive, in each image pixel, the oil-to-water ratio in oil emulsions, the sub-pixel areal fraction, and its thicknesses and volume within the limits of light penetration into the oil (up to a few millimeters). The method uses the shape of near-infrared (NIR) absorption features and the variations in the spectral continuum due to organic compounds found in oil to identify different oil chemistries, including its weathering state and thickness. The method is insensitive to complicating conditions such as moderate aerosol scattering and reflectance level changes from other conditions, including moderate sun glint. Data for this analysis were collected by the NASA Airborne Visual Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) instrument, which was flown over the oilspill on May 17, 2010. Because of the large extent of the spill, AVIRIS flight lines could cover only a portion of the spill on this relatively calm, nearly cloud-free day. Derived lower limits for oil volumes within the top few millimeters of the ocean surface directly probed with the near-infrared light detected in the AVIRIS scenes were 19,000 (conservative assumptions) to 34,000 (aggressive assumptions) barrels of oil. AVIRIS covered about 30 percent of the core spill area, which consisted of emulsion plumes and oil sheens. Areas of oil sheen but lacking oil emulsion plumes outside of the core spill were not evaluated for oil volume in this study. If the core spill areas not covered by flight lines contained similar amounts of oil and oil-water emulsions, then extrapolation to the entire core spill area defined by a MODIS (Terra) image collected on the same day indicates a minimum of 66,000 to 120,000 barrels of oil was floating on the surface. These estimates are preliminary and

A review of the state of the art in oilspill modeling, focused on the period from 2000 to present is provided. The review begins with an overview of the current structure of spill models and some lessons learned from model development and application and then provides guiding principles that govern the development of the current generation of spill models. A review of the basic structure of spill models, and new developments in specific transport and fate processes; including surface and subsurface transport, spreading, evaporation, dissolution, entrainment and oil droplet size distributions, emulsification, degradation, and sediment oil interaction are presented. The paper concludes with thoughts on future directions in the field with a primary focus on advancements in handling interactions between Lagrangian elements.

An attempt is made to estimate the trajectory of the spilledoil from the sunken tanker Nakhodka occurred on January 2, 1997 in the Japan Sea by fusing two microwave sensor data, namely ERS-2 altimeter and ADEOS/NSCAT scatterometer data. In this study 'fusion' is defined as the method of more reliable prediction for the trajectory of spilledoil than before. Geostrophic current vectors are derived from ERS-2 altimeter and wind-induced drift vectors are derived from ADEOS/NSCAT scatterometer data These two different satellite-derived vectors are 'fused' together in the surface current model to estimate and evaluate the trajectory of spilledoil from the sunken tanker Nakhodka. The distribution of component of spill vector is mostly accounted for by the distribution of geostrophic velocity component during the study period with some discrepancies during March, 1997.

As the nation’s leading scientific resource for oilspills, NOAA has been on the scene of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oilspill from the start, providing coordinated scientific weather and biological response services to federal, state and local organizations. NOAA has mobilized experts from across the agency to help contain the spreading oilspill and protect the Gulf of Mexico’s many marine mammals, sea turtles, fish, shellfish and other endangered marine life. NOAA spill specialists advised the U.S. Coast Guard on cleanup options as well as advising all affected federal, state and local partners on sensitive marine resources at risk in this area of the Gulf of Mexico. As a major partner in the federal response to this incident, NOAA provided the necessary coastal and marine expertise required for sound, timely decision-making and helped protect the affected Gulf Coast communities and coastal marine environment and will continue to do so for ongoing restoration efforts.

An innovative forecasting system of the coastal marine circulation has been implemented in the Bonifacio Strait area, between Corsica and Sardinia, using a numerical approach to facilitate the rapid planning and coordination of remedial actions for oilspill emergencies at sea by local authorities. Downscaling and nesting techniques from regional to coastal scale and a 3-D hydrodynamic numerical model, coupled with a wind wave model, are the core of the integrated Bonifacio Strait system. Such a system is capable of predicting operationally the dispersion of hydrocarbon spills in the area, both in forward and backward mode, through an easy-to-use graphical user interface. A set of applications are described and discussed including both operational applications aimed at providing rapid responses to local oilspill emergences and managing applications aimed at mitigating the risk of oilspill impacts on the coast.

Developing an effective system to clean up large-scale oilspills is of great significance due to their contribution to severe environmental pollution and destruction. Superwetting membranes have been widely studied for oil/water separation. The separation, however, adopts a gravity-driven approach that is inefficient and discontinuous due to quick fouling of the membrane by oil. Herein, inspired by the crossflow filtration behavior in fish gills, we propose a crossflow approach via a hydrophilic, tilted gradient membrane for spilledoil collection. In crossflow collection, as the oil/water flows parallel to the hydrophilic membrane surface, water is gradually filtered through the pores, while oil is repelled, transported, and finally collected for storage. Owing to the selective gating behavior of the water-sealed gradient membrane, the large pores at the bottom with high water flux favor fast water filtration, while the small pores at the top with strong oil repellency allow easy oil transportation. In addition, the gradient membrane exhibits excellent antifouling properties due to the protection of the water layer. Therefore, this bioinspired crossflow approach enables highly efficient and continuous spilledoil collection, which is very promising for the cleanup of large-scale oilspills.

The growing importance of oilspill detection as part of a rapid response system to oil pollution requires the ongoing development of algorithms. The aim of this study was to create a methodology for improving manual classification at the scale of entire water bodies, focusing on its repeatability. This paper took an object-oriented approach to radar image analysis and put particular emphasis on adaptation to the specificity of seas like the Baltic. Pre-processing using optimised filters enhanced the capability of a multilevel hierarchical segmentation, in order to detect spills of different sizes, forms and homogeneity, which occur as a result of shipping activities. Confirmed spills detected in ENVISAT/ASAR images were used to create a decision-tree procedure that classifies every distinct dark object visible in SAR images into one out of four categories, which reflect growing probability of the oilspill presence: look-alikes, dubious spots, blurred spots and potential oilspills. Our objective was to properly mark known spills on ASAR scenes and to reduce the number of false-positives by eliminating (classifying as background or look-alike) as many objects as possible from the vast initial number of objects appearing on full-scale images. A number of aspects were taken into account in the classification process. The method's performance was tested on a group of 26 oilspills recorded by HELCOM: 96.15% of them were successfully identified. The final target group was narrowed down to about 4% of dark objects extracted from ASAR images. Although a specialist is still needed to supervise the whole process of oilspill detection, this method gives an initial view, substantial for further evaluation of the scenes and risk estimation. It may significantly accelerate the pace of manual image analysis and enhance the objectivity of assessments, which are key aspects in operational monitoring systems.

The damage to and recovery of the Japanese coastline from Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture to Mikuni, Fukui Prefecture was investigated visually over three years after a C-heavy oilspill from the Russian tanker "Nakhodka" in the Japan Sea on January 2, 1997. The beached C-heavy oil tended to remain for a long time on coasts of bedrock and boulder/cobble/pebble but it was removed rapidly from coasts of gravel/sand and man-made structures such as concrete tetrapods. On the coasts of the latter type, wave energy appeared to be the main force removing the oil. One year after the spill, C-heavy oil tended to remain strongly on the sheltered coasts of bedrock and boulder/cobble/pebble. Even on coasts of this type, the contamination was remarkably absent by 2 years after the spill. The concentration levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in oil lumps, sand and seawater were monitored during 3 years following the spill. The concentrations of PAHs having 2 or 3 rings decreased more quickly than did those of PAHs having 4 or more rings, suggesting that volatilization was the main cause of the decrease. On the other hand, the concentrations of PAHs having 4 to 6 rings did not start to decrease until 7 months after the spill. The main cause of the decrease seemed to be photolysis. The concentration of BaP in seawater off the polluted coasts was high 1 month after the spill and then decreased. Three years after the spill, the level fell to the sub ng/L level, which was as low as the level in seawater along unpolluted clean coasts in Japan. The concentration of BaP in greenling was higher than the normal level only during the first two months after the spill. These results suggest that the coastlines in Ishikawa and Fukui Prefectures that were polluted with C-heavy oil recovered in 3 years.

Full Text Available In recent years, oilspill accidents have become increasingly frequent due to the development of marine transportation and massive oil exploitation. At present, satellite remote sensing is the principal method used to monitor oilspills. Extracting the locations and extent of oilspill spots accurately in remote sensing images reaps significant benefits in terms of risk assessment and clean-up work. Nowadays the method of edge detection combined with threshold segmentation (EDCTS to extract oil information is becoming increasingly popular. However, the current method has some limitations in terms of accurately extracting oilspills in synthetic aperture radar (SAR images, where heterogeneous background noise exists. In this study, we propose an adaptive mechanism based on Otsu method, which applies region growing combined with both edge detection and threshold segmentation (RGEDOM to extract oilspills. Remote sensing images from the Bohai Sea on June 11, 2011 and the Gulf of Dalian on July 17, 2010 are utilized to validate the accuracy of our algorithm and the reliability of extraction results. In addition, results according to EDCTS are used as a comparator to further explore validity. The comparison with results according to EDCTS using the same dataset demonstrates that the proposed self-adapting algorithm is more robust and boasts high-accuracy. The accuracy computing by the adaptive algorithm is significantly improved compared with EDCTS and threshold method.

Oilspills may involve health risks for people participating in the cleanup operations and coastal inhabitants, given the toxicological properties of the oil components. In spite of this, only after a few major oilspills (crude oil or fuel oil no. 6) have studies on effects of exposure to diverse aspects of human health been performed. Previously, Aguilera et al. (2010) examined all documents published to that date dealing with any type of human health outcome in populations exposed to oilspills. The aim of the present review was to compile all new information available and determine whether evidence reported supports the existence of an association between exposure and adverse human health risks. Studies were classified in three groups according to type of health outcome addressed: (i) effects on mental health, (ii) physical/physiological effects, and (iii) genotoxic, immunotoxic, and endocrine toxicity. New studies published on oil-spill-exposed populations-coastal residents in the vicinity of the spills or participants in cleanup operations-provide additional support to previous evidence on adverse health effects related to exposure regarding different parameters in all three categories considered. Some of the observed effects even indicated that several symptoms may persist for some years after exposure. Hence, (1) health protection in these individuals should be a matter of concern; and (2) health risk assessment needs to be carried out not only at the time of exposure but also for prolong periods following exposure, to enable early detection of any potential exposure-related harmful effects.

A Greek oil-tanker ran aground, resulting in a huge oilspill along the costal areas of Karachi, Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to assess the lung function and follow up change after one year in subjects exposed to crude oilspill in sea water. It was a cross sectional study with follow up in 20 apparently healthy, non-smoking, male workers, who were exposed to a crude oilspill environment during oil cleaning operation. The exposed group was matched with 31 apparently healthy male control subjects. Pulmonary function test was performed using an electronic Spirometer. Subjects exposed to polluted air have significant reduction in forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV{sub 1}), forced expiratory flow (FEF{sub 25-75%}) and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV) compared to their matched controls. This impairment was reversible and lung functions parameters were improved when the subjects were withdrawn from the polluted air environment.

Horizon (the Deepwater Horizon oilspill). The Deepwater Horizon was leased by BP America Production Company (BP) as part of the Macondo project.1 152...well to which the Deepwater Horizon was attached when it exploded. In order to coordinate the federal response to the Deepwater Horizon oilspill, the...On April 20, 2010, an oilspill of national significance in the Gulf of Mexico followed an explosion on the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater

Oilspills are one of the most widespread problems in port areas (loading/unloading of bulk liquid, fuel supply). Specific environmental risk analysis procedures for diffuse oil sources that are based on the evolution of oil in the marine environment are needed. Diffuse sources such as oilspills usually present a lack of information, which makes the use of numerical models an arduous and occasionally impossible task. For that reason, a tool that can assess the risk of oilspills in near-shore areas by using Geographical Information System (GIS) is presented. The SPILL Tool provides immediate results by automating the process without miscalculation errors. The tool was developed using the Python and ArcGIS scripting library to build a non-ambiguous geoprocessing workflow. The SPILL Tool was implemented for oil facilities at Tarragona Harbor (NE Spain) and validated showing a satisfactory correspondence (around 0.60 RSR error index) with the results obtained using a 2D calibrated oil transport numerical model.

This thesis describes how laboratory experiments combined with numerical modelling were used to predict weathering of an oil slick at different environmental conditions (temperature, wind etc.). It also applies laboratory test methods to screen dispersant effectiveness under different temperatures and salinities. A new approach is developed for dispersant optimization based on statistical design and multivariate analysis; this resulted in a new dispersant with low toxicity and high effectiveness on a broad selection of oil types. The thesis illustrates the potential of dispersant used as an operational response method on oilspills by discussing three different oilspill scenarios and compares the effect of using dispersants to using mechanical recovery and to doing nothing. Some recommendations that may increase the effectiveness of the Norwegian oilspill contingency are also given. 172 refs., 65 figs., 9 tabs.

The pattern of oil retention in mangrove sediments was studied in an effort to determine the temporal changes of petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations and composition several months after oilspills occur. Mangroves are inter-tidal wetlands in tropical and subtropical coastlines. Due to the anoxic and water logging characteristics of mangrove sediments, oil residues linger much longer in these wetlands compared to other coastal habitats. In November 2000, an accidental oilspill occurred in the Pearl River Estuary in which approximately 230,000 litres of crude oil was leaked from an oil tanker. The spilledoil migrated to the YiO, a typical mangrove swamp in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The degree of oil contamination in the sediments depended on the sediment texture and topography of the mangrove. The total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration of the sediments in the most affected area near a freshwater creek flowing into the sea was 130 times higher than normal, one month after the accident. The mean TPH concentration was 2862 ug/g of dry sediment while the mean carbon preference index was 1.22 compared to the background value of 3.97. The temporal changes of the petroleum hydrocarbon level in 5 defined areas were examined for 7 months after the spill. The most polluted area next to the creek was determined to have very high TPH levels in the muddy sediments even 7 months after the spill. Oil residues infiltrated as deep as 20 cm into the sediments, making it more difficult to degrade than surface pollution and posing long-term adverse effects on trees in the area. It was determined that with growing industrialization and increasing demands for fuel and energy supply, mangroves in South China should be ranked as top priority for protection from oilspills. 19 refs., 6 tabs., 6 figs.

Four polyoxyethylenated pentaerythritol (PE) ester surfactants have been synthesized. The molecular weights of these surfactants were calculated and evaluated experimentally by GPC and confirmed by calculations based on {sup 1}H-NMR. Also, their HLB values were calculated by Griffin formula. The surface tension and thermodynamic properties of the surfactants were obtained from surface tension measurements at different temperatures (298-318 K). It was found that the minimum area/surfactant molecule (A{sub min}) for the investigated surfactants increased with increasing the molecular weight of the incorporated ethylene oxide. The thermodynamic parameters of micellization ({delta}G{sub mic,} {delta}H{sub mic} and {delta}S{sub mic}) and that for adsorption ({delta}G{sub ad,} {delta}H{sub ad} and {delta}S{sub ad}) were also calculated. The more negative Gibbs free energy of adsorption values than those of micellization suggest that these surfactants favor adsorption than micellization. This finding is utilized for monitoring their dispersancy power. It was found that the water solubility of the prepared surfactants is correlated to their HLB values. Furthermore, the biodegradability of the prepared compounds was studied at different conditions in order to investigate their usability as oilspill dispersants. The data revealed that PE200-C12 had maximum dispersion efficiency and it was completely biodegraded after 8 days. (orig.)

Oil pollution in the Mediterranean represents a serious threat to the coastal environment. Quantifying the risks associated with a potential spill is often based on results generated from oilspill models. In this study, MEDSLIK-II, an EU funded and endorsed oilspill model, is used to assess potential oilspill scenarios at four pilot areas located along the northern, eastern, and southern Mediterranean shoreline, providing a wide range of spill conditions and coastal geomorphological characteristics. Oilspill risk assessment at the four pilot areas was quantified as a function of three oil pollution metrics that include the susceptibility of oiling per beach segment, the average volume of oiling expected in the event of beaching, and the average oil beaching time. The results show that while the three pollution metrics tend to agree in their hazard characterization when the shoreline morphology is simple, considerable differences in the quantification of the associated hazard is possible under complex coastal morphologies. These differences proved to greatly alter the evaluation of environmental risks. An integrative hazard index is proposed that encompasses the three simulated pollution metrics. The index promises to shed light on oilspill hazards that can be universally applied across the Mediterranean basin by integrating it with the unified oilspill risk assessment tool developed by the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean (REMPEC).

In order to characterize the state of oilspill research and describe how the field has changed since its inception in the 1960s and since the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, we examined approximately 10% of oilspill literature (1255 of over 11,000 publications) published from 1968 to 2015. We find that, despite its episodic nature, oilspill research is a rapidly expanding field with a growth rate faster than that of science as a whole. There is a massive post-Deepwater Horizon shift of research attention to the Gulf of Mexico, from 2% of studies in 2004-2008 to 61% in 2014-2015, thus ranking Deepwater Horizon as the most studied oilspill. There is, however, a longstanding gap in research in that only 1% of studies deal with the effects of oilspills on human health. These results provide a better understanding of the current trends and gaps within the field.

A simple experiment is described in which the potential of commercially available steel pellets coated with polyethylene (PE) or poly(vinylchloride) (PVC) to remediate an oilspill is demonstrated. Polymer-coated particles are weighed, immersed in oil, magnetically harvested and the remaining oil is weighed in order to enable students to quantitatively investigate the adsorption process. The possibility of recycling the beads and reclaiming the oil is also demonstrated.

Atmospheric mercury pollution was recognized after a large oilspill on the west coast of Korea on 7 December 2007. In this study, the concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM: Hg(0)) in air were measured both shortly after the oilspill ( approximately 100h) and 1month after the accident near the accident site. When the Hg concentration levels were compared between two seashore sites and two parallel sites offshore, the values tend to decrease further offshore. The unusual rise in Hg concentration levels observed on the seashore area shortly after the accident (mean of 16.4+/-9.85ngm(-3)) dropped dramatically after 1month with active cleanup activities (2.99+/-1.40ngm(-3)). Because of the connection between crude oil and Hg (one of the major impurities), the unusual rise in the atmospheric Hg after the oilspill can be explained by the active evasion of Hg from the spilled crude oil. Although Hg levels determined a few days after the accident did not exceed the reference exposure limits (REL) proposed by several agencies, the early build-up of elemental mercury level due to the oilspill might have exerted certain impacts on the surrounding environments.

Much oilspill research has focused on fertilizing hydrocarbon oxidising bacteria, but a primary limitation is the rapid dilution of additives in open waters. A new technique is presented for bioremediation by adding nutrient amendments to the oilspill using thin filmed minerals comprised largely of Fullers Earth clay. Together with adsorbed N and P fertilizers, filming additives, and organoclay, clay flakes can be engineered to float on seawater, attach to the oil, and slowly release contained nutrients. Our laboratory experiments of microbial activity on weathered source oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico show fertilized clay treatment significantly enhanced bacterial respiration and consumption of alkanes compared to untreated oil-in-water conditions and reacted faster than straight fertilization. Whereas a major portion (up to 98%) of the alkane content was removed during the 1 month period of experimentation by fertilized clay flake interaction; the reduced concentration of polyaromatic hydrocarbons was not significantly different from the non-clay bearing samples. Such clay flake treatment could offer a way to more effectively apply the fertilizer to the spill in open nutrient poor waters and thus significantly reduce the extent and duration of marine oilspills, but this method is not expected to impact hydrocarbon toxicity.

In the framework of the ASI PRIMI Project, CNR- ISAC, in collaboration with the PRIMI partners, organized a validation cruise for the PRIMI oilspill monitoring and forecasting system on board the CNR R/V Urania. The cruise (Aug. 6 - Sept. 7 2009) took place in the Sicily Strait, an area affected by large oil tanker traffic. The cruise plan was organized in order to have the ship within the selected SAR image frames at acquisition time so that the ship could move toward the oil slick and verify it via visual and instrumental inspection. During the cruise, several oilspills, presumably being the result of illegal tank washing, were detected by the PRIMI system and were verified in situ. Preliminary results indicate that SAR and optical satellites are able to detect heavy and thin film oilspills, the maturity of oilspill forecasting models and that further work combining satellite, model and in situ data is necessary to assess the spill severity from the signature in satellite imagery.

The technical issues regarding the use of dispersants to clean up oilspills from offshore production sources and transportation sources in California were assessed in this study which examined both operational and environmental issues. The operational issues included the dispersibility of produced and imported oils, along with the capabilities of California response resources to deal with typical spills and limiting environmental impacts to offshore environments. The environmental issues include the risks associated with typical spills and potential net environmental benefit of chemically dispersing oilspills. Most crude oils produced offshore California are heavy and border on the undispersable range, but the imported crudes are somewhat lighter. Modeling has shown that most produced oils and some imported oils emulsify quickly and weather more quickly to the point where they are no longer dispersible. There is a very narrow window of time for chemical dispersions to be used effectively. The net environmental benefit analysis demonstrates that the use of dispersants lessens the total environmental impact of spill scenarios. It was emphasized that it is necessary to act quickly if chemical dispersion is to be effective. Rapid response strategies are needed, including locally based vessel and helicopter spraying systems. 19 refs., 8 tabs., 1 fig.

Full Text Available Much oilspill research has focused on fertilizing hydrocarbon oxidising bacteria, but a primary limitation is the rapid dilution of additives in open waters. A new technique is presented for bioremediation by adding nutrient amendments to the oilspill using thin filmed minerals comprised largely of Fullers Earth clay. Together with adsorbed N and P fertilizers, filming additives, and organoclay, clay flakes can be engineered to float on seawater, attach to the oil, and slowly release contained nutrients. Our laboratory experiments of microbial activity on weathered source oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico show fertilized clay treatment significantly enhanced bacterial respiration and consumption of alkanes compared to untreated oil-in-water conditions and reacted faster than straight fertilization. Whereas a major portion (up to 98% of the alkane content was removed during the 1 month period of experimentation by fertilized clay flake interaction; the reduced concentration of polyaromatic hydrocarbons was not significantly different from the non-clay bearing samples. Such clay flake treatment could offer a way to more effectively apply the fertilizer to the spill in open nutrient poor waters and thus significantly reduce the extent and duration of marine oilspills, but this method is not expected to impact hydrocarbon toxicity.

Over two million tonnes of oil are estimated to enter the world's oceans every year. A small percentage, but still a large volume, of this oil strands onshore, where its persistence is governed primarily by the action of physical forces. In some cases, biota influence the persistence of stranded oil or the rate of its weathering. Oil's deleterious effects on biota are frequently related to the persistence and degree of weathering of the oil, with long-lasting effects in low-energy environments such as salt marshes and coastal mangroves, or in higher-energy environments where oil is sequestered. However, an oilspill can have disproportionately large biological effects when it affects key species or processes (e.g., structurally important species, predators, prey, recruitment, or succession). In these cases, the continuing presence of oil is not always a prerequisite for continuing biological effects. There are relatively few long-term studies of the effects of oilspills; data from these suggest that oil can persist for decades in some environments or situations, and that biological effects can be equally persistent. Broad-based, integrated studies have been the most revealing in terms of the importance of direct and indirect effects, spillover effects between different parts of the environment, and continuing linkages between residual oil and biologic effects. Clean-up and treatment techniques applied to spilled or stranded oil can also have significant, long-lasting effects and need to be carefully evaluated prior to use.

In May 2010, the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST), a partnership of the University of Mississippi, the University of Southern Mississippi and NOAA, had a 17-day research cruise aboard the UNOLS vessel R/V Pelican scheduled. Two weeks before departure, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform burned and sank, resulting in an uncontrolled oilspill at a depth of ~1500 m at Mississippi Canyon Block 252. The initial mission plan to do AUV surveys of wrecks and hydrate outcrops in the northern Gulf of Mexico, some of them very close to the site of the accident, was abandoned in favor of responding to the still uncontrolled oilspill. The primary goals of the redefined cruise were to acquire baseline and early impact data for seafloor sediments and subsurface distribution of oil and gas hydrates as close as possible in time and space to the origin of the oilspill. Investigating an oilspill nearly a mile deep in the ocean presents special benthic sampling and subsurface oil detection challenges. NIUST’s AUV’s were unloaded from the ship and a large main winch installed to allow operation of a full ocean depth box corer for collecting sediment samples in water depths up to 2000 m. During the first five-day leg of the cruise, a total of 28 box cores were collected. The Pelican returned to port (Cocodrie, LA) to drop off sediment and water samples for immediate analyses, and to take on more sampling gear and supplies for the second leg of the cruise, including an Acrobat, a CDOM fluorometer, a Video Ray ROV, and a CO2 sensor in addition to the already installed CTD Rosette with O2 sensor and beam transmissometer. During Leg 2, CTD stations were plotted to cover the area surrounding the wreck site and at various water depths to map the subsurface water column structure and chemistry as baseline values for future investigations and especially to look for submerged oil and/or gas hydrates. Early in the water column sampling, a subsurface feature

This article summarizes a study directed towards the prediction of oilspill migration in sandy soils. Such a prediction is needed for the design of remedial measures against soil and groundwater contamination. The geneal approach in this study is to convert available data concerning water infiltration into equivalent unknown data concerning oil spillage. This information is then fed into a numerical model by which the oilspill migration is simulated. Laboratory measurements including retention curve, hydraulic conductivity and infiltration rate, were made separately for water and kerosene in order to evaluate and confirm the suggested approach.

In 1986 more than 8 million liters of crude oilspilled into a complex region of mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs just east of the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. This was the largest recorded spill into coastal habitats in the tropical Americas. Many population of plants and animals in both oiled and unoiled sites had been studied previously, thereby providing an unprecedented measure of ecological variation before the spill. Documenation of the spread of oil and its biological begun immediately. Intertidal mangroves, algae, and associated invertebrates were covered by oil and died soon after. More surprisingly, there was also extensive mortality of shallow subtidal reef corals and infauna of seagrass beds. After 1.5 years only some organisms in areas exposed to the open sea have recovered.

In 1986 more than 8 million liters of crude oilspilled into a complex region of mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs just east of the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. This was the largest recorded spill into coastal habitats in the tropical Americas. Many populations of plants and animals in both oiled and unoiled sites had been studied previously, thereby providing an unprecedented measure of ecological variation before the spill. Documentation of the spread of oil and its biological effects begun immediately. Intertidal mangroves, seagrasses, algae, and associated invertebrates were covered by oil and died soon after. More surprisingly, there was also extensive mortality of shallow subtidal reef corals and infauna of seagrass beds. After 1.5 years only some organisms in areas exposed to the open sea have recovered.

On 20 April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform killed 11 people, and the subsequent blowout of the deepwater wellhead sparked one of the most costly oilspills in history. In the days and months that followed, researchers and disaster response crews flocked to the Gulf of Mexico to study, assess, and guide cleanup operations. In the AGU monograph Monitoring and Modeling the Deepwater Horizon OilSpill: A Record-Breaking Enterprise, editors Yonggang Liu, Amy MacFadyen, Zhen-Gang Ji, and Robert H. Weisberg pull together the results of the state-of-the-art rapid response research conducted during the Gulf oilspill. Here Eos talks to Yonggang Liu.

Ten oilspill bioremediation products were tested in the laboratory for their ability to enhance biodegradation of weathered Alaskan North Slope crude oil in both fresh and salt-water media. The products included: nutrients to stimulate inoculated microorganisms, nutrients plus a...

This case has the student actively investigate the regulation of expression of a novel bacterial gene in the context of attempts to solve a real world problem, clean up of the April 2010 Deep Water Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the case is fictitious, it is based on factual gene regulatory characteristics of oil-degrading…

of the available data. A framework (integrated multivariate oil hydrocarbon fingerprinting - IMOF) for the use of chemometric approaches in tiered oilspill fingerprinting is presented in this chapter. It consists of four main steps where a suite of analytical instruments, data preprocessing and multivariate...

Barrier islands of Northwest Florida were heavily oiled during the Deepwater Horizon spill, but less is known about the impacts to the shorelines of the associated estuaries. Shoreline sediment oiling was investigated at 18 sites within the Pensacola Bay, Florida system prior to...

Unusually large amounts of marine snow, including Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS), were formed during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oilspill. The marine snow settled with oil and clay minerals as an oily sludge layer on the deep sea floor. This study tested the hypothesis that the unpreced

Unusually large amounts of marine snow, including Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS), were formed during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oilspill. The marine snow settled with oil and clay minerals as an oily sludge layer on the deep sea floor. This study tested the hypothesis that the

Full Text Available Oilspill in bodies of water is one of severe environmental problems that is facing all over the country and in the world. Since oil is an integral part of the economy, increasing trend for its demand and transport of has led to a great treat in the surface water. One of the promising techniques in the removal of the oilspills in water bodies is adsorption using activated carbon form waste material such as corn cobs. The purpose of this study is to determine the adsorption capacity of activated carbon tablets derived from corncobs in the removal of oil. The properties of activated carbon produced have a pH of 7.0, bulk density of 0.26 g//cm3 , average pore size of 45nm, particle size of 18% at 60 mesh and 39% at 80 mesh, iodine number of 1370 mg/g and surface area of 1205 g/m2. The amount of bentonite clay as binder (15%,20%,30%, number of ACT (1,2,3 and time of contact(30,60,90 mins has been varied to determine the optimum condition where the activated carbon will have the best adsorption capacity in the removal of oil. Results showed that at 15% binder, 60 mins contact time and 3 tablets of activated carbon is the optimum condition which give a percentage adsorption of 22.82% of oil. Experimental data also showed that a Langmuir isotherm was the best fit isotherm for adsorption of ACT.

Full Text Available Oilspill microcosms experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of bioemulsificant exopolysaccharide (EPS2003 on quick stimulation of hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria. Early hours of oilspill, were stimulated using an experimental seawater microcosm, supplemented with crude oil and EPS2003 (SW+OIL+EPS2003; this system was monitored for 2 days and compared to control microcosm (only oil-polluted seawater, SW+OIL. Determination of bacterial abundance, heterotrophic cultivable and hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria were carried out. Community composition of marine bacterioplankton was determined by 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. Data obtained indicated that bioemulsificant addition stimulated an increase of total bacterial abundance and, in particular, selection of bacteria related to Alcanivorax genus; confirming that EPS2003 could be used for the dispersion of oil slicks and could stimulate the selection of marine hydrocarbon degraders thus increasing bioremediation process.

This paper describes details of an oilspill model, OILTRANS, developed by the authors. The model is an off-line particle-transport model coupled to the most up to date operational met-ocean model forecasts. Formulations for the dominant oil fate processes of spreading, advection, diffusion, evaporation, emulsification and dispersion have been encoded, providing the model with the ability to accurately predict the horizontal movement of surface oil slick, the vertical entrainment of oil into the water column and the mass balance of spilledoil. The application of the OILTRANS model to an accidental release during a ship-to-ship fuel transfer in the Celtic Sea in February 2009 is presented to validate the system. Comparisons with aerial observations of the oil slick at the time of the incident, and subsequent model simulations, indicate that the OILTRANS model is capable of accurately predicting the transport and fate of the oil slick.

The paper describes the contents and capabilities of OSIMS - the OilSpill Information Management System. OSIMS is an integrated information management tool providing a graphical interface to an object-oriented database of geographical and other spill-related data. OSIMS combines the utility of a Geographic Information System with the intelligence of a Decision Support System, and provides global access through the World-Wide Web.

Based on time-resolved fluorescence of oils, an oceanographic fluorescence Lidar was designed to identify oil pollutions. A third harmonic (at 355nm) of Nd:YAG laser is used as the excitation source, and the fluorescence intensities and lifetimes of oil fluorescence at wavelength from 380 nm to 580 nm are measured by an intensified CCD (ICCD). In the experiments, time-resolved fluorescence spectra of 20 oil samples, including crude oils, fuel oils, lubricating oil, diesel oils and gasoline, are analyzed to discuss fluorescence spectral characteristics of samples for oil classification. The spectral characteristics of oil fluorescence obtained by ICCD with delay time of 2 ns, 4 ns, and 6 ns were studied by using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. Moreover, an efficient method is used to improve the recognition rate of the oilspill types, through enlarging spectral differences of oil fluorescence at different delay times. Experimental analysis shows that the optimization method can discriminate between crude oil and fuel oil, and a more accurate classification of oils is obtained by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. As the result, comparing to traditional fluorescence spectroscopy, a higher recognition rate of oilspill types is achieved by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy which is also a feasibility technology for Ocean Lidar.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill covered a very large geographical area in the Gulf of Mexico creating potentially serious environmental impacts on both marine life and the coastal shorelines. Knowing the oil's areal extent and thickness as well as denoting different categories of the oil's physical state is important for assessing these impacts. High spectral resolution data in hyperspectral imagery (HSI) sensors such as Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) provide a valuable source of information that can be used for analysis by semi-automatic methods for tracking an oilspill's areal extent, oil thickness, and oil categories. However, the spectral behavior of oil in water is inherently a highly non-linear and variable phenomenon that changes depending on oil thickness and oil/water ratios. For certain oil thicknesses there are well-defined absorption features, whereas for very thin films sometimes there are almost no observable features. Feature-based imaging spectroscopy methods are particularly effective at classifying materials that exhibit specific well-defined spectral absorption features. Statistical methods are effective at classifying materials with spectra that exhibit a considerable amount of variability and that do not necessarily exhibit well-defined spectral absorption features. This study investigates feature-based and statistical methods for analyzing oilspills using hyperspectral imagery. The appropriate use of each approach is investigated and a combined feature-based and statistical method is proposed. ?? 2011 SPIE.

Full Text Available This paper provides a comprehensive review of the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar images (SAR for detection of illegal discharges from ships. It summarizes the current state of the art, covering operational and research aspects of the application. Oilspills are seriously affecting the marine ecosystem and cause political and scientific concern since they seriously effect fragile marine and coastal ecosystem. The amount of pollutant discharges and associated effects on the marine environment are important parameters in evaluating sea water quality. Satellite images can improve the possibilities for the detection of oilspills as they cover large areas and offer an economical and easier way of continuous coast areas patrolling. SAR images have been widely used for oilspill detection. The present paper gives an overview of the methodologies used to detect oilspills on the radar images. In particular we concentrate on the use of the manual and automatic approaches to distinguish oilspills from other natural phenomena. We discuss the most common techniques to detect dark formations on the SAR images, the features which are extracted from the detected dark formations and the most used classifiers. Finally we conclude with discussion of suggestions for further research. The references throughout the review can serve as starting point for more intensive studies on the subject.

Full Text Available The primary objective of this work was the development of an operational system for early detection of oil-spills, monitoring of their evolution, and provision of support to responsible Public Authorities during cleanup operations, based on Remote Sensing and GIS technologies. In case of emergency, the principal characteristics of the oilspill are defined with the aid of a space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR. The transport, spreading and dispersion of the oilspill is subsequently simulated on the basis of wind forecasts of the area. The use of thematic maps of protected, fishing and urban areas, and regions of high tourism allows the better assessment of the impact of an oilspill on the areas to be affected in terms of environmental sensitivity. Finally, reports are generated notifying port authorities, the media, and local organizations to be potentially affected by the presence of the oilspill. The pilot site for testing the PROMED System in Greece is the island of Crete.

The work reported here encompasses analyses of specific potential spill scenarios for oil exploration activity planned offshore of Namibia. The analyses are carried out with the SINTEF OilSpill Contingency and Response (OSCAR) 3-dimensional model systems. A spill scenario using 150 m{sup 3} of marine diesel demonstrates the rapidity with which such a spill will dissipate naturally, even in light winds. Vertical and horizontal mixing bring subsurface hydrocarbon concentrations to background levels within a few days. A hypothetical 10 day blowout scenario releasing 11,000 bbl per day of light crude oil is investigated in terms of the potential for delivering oil to selected bird and marine mammal areas along the Namibian coast. Worst case scenarios are selected to investigate the potential mitigating effects of planned oilspill response actions. Mechanical recovery significantly reduces, and in some cases eliminates, potential environmental consequences of these worst case scenarios. Dispersant application from fixed wing aircraft further reduces the potential surface effects. The analysis supplies an objective basis for net environmental analysis of the planned response strategies. (Author)

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the northern Gulf of Mexico represents the largest marine accidental oilspill in history. It is distinguished from past spills in that it occurred at the greatest depth (1,500 m), the amount of hydrocarbon gas (mostly methane) lost was equivalent to the mass of crude oil released, and dispersants were used for the first time in the deep sea in an attempt to remediate the spill. The spill is also unique in that it has been characterized with an unprecedented level of resolution using next-generation sequencing technologies, especially for the ubiquitous hydrocarbon-degrading microbial communities that appeared largely to consume the gases and to degrade a significant fraction of the petroleum. Results have shown an unexpectedly rapid response of deep-sea Gammaproteobacteria to oil and gas and documented a distinct succession correlated with the control of the oil flow and well shut-in. Similar successional events, also involving Gammaproteobacteria, have been observed in nearshore systems as well.

Oilspill modeling is considered to be an important decision support system (DeSS) useful for remedial action in case of accidents, as well as for designing the environmental monitoring system that is frequently set up after major accidents. Many accidents take place in coastal areas implying that low resolution basin scale ocean models is of limited use for predicting the trajectories of an oilspill. In this study, we target the oilspill in connection with the Full City accident on the Norwegian south coast and compare three different oilspill models for the area. The result of the analysis is that all models do a satisfactory job. The "standard" operational model for the area is shown to have severe flaws but including an analysis based on a higher resolution model (1.5 km resolution) for the area the model system show results that compare well with observations. The study also shows that an ensemble using three different models is useful when predicting/analyzing oilspill in coastal areas.

Full Text Available The primary objective of this work was the development of an operational system for early detection of oil-spills, monitoring of their evolution, and provision of support to responsible Public Authorities during cleanup operations, based on Remote Sensing and GIS technologies. In case of emergency, the principal characteristics of the oilspill are defined with the aid of a space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR. The transport, spreading and dispersion of the oilspill is subsequently simulated on the basis of wind forecasts of the area. The use of thematic maps of protected, fishing and urban areas, and regions of high tourism allows the better assessment of the impact of an oilspill on the areas to be affected in terms of environmental sensitivity. Finally, reports are generated notifying port authorities, the media, and local organizations to be potentially affected by the presence of the oilspill. The pilot site for testing the PROMED System in Greece is the island of Crete.

Modeling oilspills in the Med-Sea as a mean of early response in cases of oil leakages G. Zodiatis1, M. De Dominicis2, L. Perivoliotis3, H. Radhakrishnan1, R. W. Lardner1, N. Pinardi2, G. Coppini4, D. Soloviev1, J. Tintore5, M. Sotillo6 A. Drago7, S. Stylianou1, A. Nikolaidis1, T. Alves8, E. Kokinou9 and MEDESS4MS partners 1Oceanography Centre, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus 2Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Bologna, Italy 3Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Athens, Greece 4Centro Euro- Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Italy 5SOCIB, IMEDEA, Palma de Majorca, Spain 6Puertos del Estado, Madrid, Spain 7IOI, University of Malta, La Valetta, Malta 83D Seismic Lab, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom 9Dept. of Environmental and Natural Resources, Technological Educational Institute Crete, Chania, Greece The risk from oilspill pollution in the Mediterranean is high due to the heavy traffic of merchant vessels for transporting oil and to the increasing coastal and offshore platforms related to the hydrocarbon exploration. This is especially true in the Levantine Basin following the recent widening of the Suez canal and the increase of the offshore deep wells for the exploitation of oil and gas. In order to select the optimal response measurements to assist the response agencies, oilspill models are used to provide predictions of the drift and weathering of the oil slicks. The establishment of the operational ocean forecasting systems at regional level, within the Copernicus Marine Environmental Monitoring Service and in association with the national downscaled ones, provided the background for the implementation of a multi model integrated oilspill prediction system for the entire Mediterranean to support the maritime safety in near real time. This implementation was carried out in the frame of the medess4ms.eu project, which is dedicated to the response agencies of the riparian countries and to

Artificial leaf packs were used to determine the effects of an oilspill on stream macroinvertebrate communities in the Chariton River, Missouri. Plastic mesh leaf retainers with approximately 10 g of leaves from five tree species were deployed at five sites (two upstream of the spill and three downstream) immediately after the spill and one year later. Four macroinvertebrate species dominating the community at upstream sites were virtually eliminated below the spill, including the stonefly Isoperla bilineata, the caddisfly Potamyia flava, the midge Thienemanniella xena, and blackfly larvae (Simulium sp.). Density of collector and shredder functional groups, and number of shredder taxa differed between upstream sites and the two furthest downstream sites during the 1990 sample period (Kruskal-Wallis w/Bonferroni paired comparisons, experiment wise error rate = 0.05). With one exception, no differences between sites were detected in the 1991-1992 sample period, indicating that the benthic community had at least partially recovered from the oilspill after one year. The odds of obtaining a sample with a small abundance of shredders (abundance spill than upstream, and the odds of obtaining a sample with a small abundance of shredders at downstream sites was greater in 1990 than in 1991-1992. A similar pattern was observed in abundance and taxa richness of the collector functional group. No significant differences between the two sampling periods were detected at upstream sites. Observed effects appeared to be associated with oil sorption and substrate coating, creating conditions unsuitable for successful colonization.

Full Text Available Benthic habitats harbour a significant (yet unexplored diversity of microscopic eukaryote taxa, including metazoan phyla, protists, algae and fungi. These groups are thought to underpin ecosystem functioning across diverse marine environments. Coastal marine habitats in the Gulf of Mexico experienced visible, heavy impacts following the Deepwater Horizon oilspill in 2010, yet our scant knowledge of prior eukaryotic biodiversity has precluded a thorough assessment of this disturbance. Using a marker gene and morphological approach, we present an intensive evaluation of microbial eukaryote communities prior to and following oiling around heavily impacted shorelines. Our results show significant changes in community structure, with pre-spill assemblages of diverse Metazoa giving way to dominant fungal communities in post-spill sediments. Post-spill fungal taxa exhibit low richness and are characterized by an abundance of known hydrocarbon-degrading genera, compared to prior communities that contained smaller and more diverse fungal assemblages. Comparative taxonomic data from nematodes further suggests drastic impacts; while pre-spill samples exhibit high richness and evenness of genera, post-spill communities contain mainly predatory and scavenger taxa alongside an abundance of juveniles. Based on this community analysis, our data suggest considerable (hidden initial impacts across Gulf beaches may be ongoing, despite the disappearance of visible surface oil in the region.

The observed decrease in sea-ice and change from multi-year ice to first-year ice in the Arctic Ocean opens up for increased maritime activities. These activities include transportation, extraction of oil and gas, fishing and tourism. The expected growth in marine shipping in the Arctic region also increases the potential threat of accidents. Within this project we aim to provide information about the potential geographical distribution of oil pollution along prospective future shipping lanes in the Arctic. Using a combination of remote sensing products and a risk analysis thought-process we develop a method that tracks a potential oilspill from release to clean-up. We use synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to provide input data about the changes in the Arctic sea ice cover, including sea ice drift, sea-ice concentration and information on the wind patterns over open water at 10 meters height. Combining this data with information about ocean currents we make estimates on the redistribution and spread of oil pollution scenarios. Furthermore, the method includes the biogeochemical impact of the spill on the environment. Different size of oilspills and spills with different type of oil will be included and we will include ecotoxicological effects of low concentrations of oil for possible future economic assessment of the environmental impact.

Environmentalists are concerned about the plans to open US offshore and Arctic regions for oil exploration and production. The US environmental movement gained ground after the Santa Barbara well blowout in 1969. Following the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, the movement spurred regulatory changes and industry initiatives to prevent oilspills. The implementation of prevention-oriented regulations and voluntary industry initiatives have contributed to a considerable reduction in spillage over the past 40 years. This presentation provided average annual total petroleum industry and non-industry spillage statistics during that time frame. In this study, oil was referred to as a broadly-defined class of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures, including crude oil and liquid refined petroleum products and waste oils, but did not include BTEX compounds, petroleum chemicals or highly-volatile liquids. Spills were defined as an event in which oil is accidentally, or occasionally intentionally, released to the environment. The presentation addressed issues regarding natural seeps and spillage from oil industry activities. This included spills associated with offshore oil exploration and production activities; spills from inland production wells; spills from oil tank vessels and non-tank vessels; spills from coastal and inland pipes; spills from railroads, tanker trucks and oil refining; spills related to oil consumption; spills from coastal marine facilities; spills from gas stations and truck stops; spills from residential home heating oil tanks; and spills from motor vehicles. Legally permitted oil discharges were discussed with reference to produced water, refinery effluent discharges, and lubricants from vessels. The study showed that over the last decade, the largest source category of spillage was inland pipelines followed by EPA-regulated facilities. Changes in spillage rates between 1988 and 1997 has shown that there has been a general downward trend in US spills. 18 refs., 33

The cleanup of accidental oilspills in water is an enormous challenge; conventional oil sorbents absorb large amounts of water in addition to oil and other cleanup methods can cause secondary pollution. In contrast, fresh leaves of the aquatic ferns Salvinia are superhydrophobic and superoleophilic, and can selectively absorb oil while repelling water. These selective wetting properties are optimal for natural oil absorbent applications and bioinspired oil sorbent materials. In this paper we quantify the oil absorption capacity of four Salvinia species with different surface structures, water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and Lotus leaves (Nelumbo nucifera), and compare their absorption capacity to artificial oil sorbents. Interestingly, the oil absorption capacities of Salvinia molesta and Pistia stratiotes leaves are comparable to artificial oil sorbents. Therefore, these pantropical invasive plants, often considered pests, qualify as environmentally friendly materials for oilspill cleanup. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of oil density and viscosity on the oil absorption, and examine how the presence and morphology of trichomes affect the amount of oil absorbed by their surfaces. Specifically, the influence of hair length and shape is analyzed by comparing different hair types ranging from single trichomes of Salvinia cucullata to complex eggbeater-shaped trichomes of Salvinia molesta to establish a basis for improving artificial bioinspired oil absorbents.

Naturally occurring halloysite clay nanotubes are effective in stabilizing oil-in-water emulsions and can serve as interfacially-active vehicles for delivering oilspill treating agents. Halloysite nanotubes adsorb at the oil-water interface and stabilize oil-in-water emulsions that are stable for months. Cryo-scanning electron microscopy (Cryo-SEM) imaging of the oil-in-water emulsions shows that these nanotubes assemble in a side-on orientation at the oil-water interface and form networks on the interface through end-to-end linkages. For application in the treatment of marine oilspills, halloysite nanotubes were successfully loaded with surfactants and utilized as an interfacially-active vehicle for the delivery of surfactant cargo. The adsorption of surfactant molecules at the interface serves to lower the interfacial tension while the adsorption of particles provides a steric barrier to drop coalescence. Pendant drop tensiometry was used to characterize the dynamic reduction in interfacial tension resulting from the release of dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (DOSS) from halloysite nanotubes. At appropriate surfactant compositions and loadings in halloysite nanotubes, the crude oil-saline water interfacial tension is effectively lowered to levels appropriate for the dispersion of oil. This work indicates a novel concept of integrating particle stabilization of emulsions together with the release of chemical surfactants from the particles for the development of an alternative, cheaper, and environmentally-benign technology for oilspill remediation.

Oil transportation by sea induces challenging problems of environmental control. Millions of tonnes of oil are yearly released during routine ship operations, not to mention vast spills due to different accidents (e.g. tanker collisions, grounding, etc.). Oil pollution is dangerous to marine organisms such as plants, fish and mammals, leading to widespread damage to our planet. In turn, fishery and travel agencies can lose money and clients, and ship operators are obliged to pay huge penalties for environmental pollution. In this work we present the method of accessing oil pollution of marine environment using recently developed oilspill model. The model describes basic processes of the oil slick evolution: oil transport due to currents, drift under the action of wind, spreading on the surface, evaporation, emulsification and dispersion. Such parameters as slick location, mass, density of oil, water content, viscosity and density of "water-in-oil" emulsion can be calculated. We demonstrate how to apply the model to damage calculation problems using a concept of average damage to particular marine area. We also formulate the problem of oilspill risk control, when some accident parameters are not known, but their probability distribution is given. We propose a new algorithm to solve such problems and show results of our model simulations. The work can be interesting to broad environmental, physics and mathematics community. The work is supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 16-31-00510.

Oilspills are one of the major sources of marine pollution; it is important to conduct comprehensive assessment of losses that occur as a result of these events. Traditional methods are required to assess the three parts of losses including cleanup, socioeconomic losses, and environmental costs. It is relatively slow because assessment is complex and time consuming. A relatively quick method was developed to improve the efficiency of assessment, and then applied to the Penglai 19-3 accident. This paper uses an SAR image to calculate the oilspill area through Neural Network Classification, and uses historical oil-spill data to build the relationship between loss and other factors including sea-surface wind speed, and distance to the coast. A multiple regression equation was used to assess oilspill damage as a function of the independent variables. Results of this study can be used for regulating and quickly dealing with oilspill assessment.

Observations on oil slicks, tar residues and dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons (DPH) shortly after the oilspill resulting from the tanker accident in January 1993 showed negligible impact on the Indian EEZ of the Great Channel (Andaman Sea). DPH...

Observations on oil slicks, tar residues and dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons (DPH) shortly after the oilspill resulting from the tanker accident in January 1993 showed negligible impact on the Indian EEZ of the Great Channel (Andaman Sea). DPH...

Polarimetric SAR is increasingly used for oilspill observation. In order to develop reliable methods for oilspill detection and characterization, the sensitivity of these measurements to the imaging geometry, including incidence angle and look direction relative to the wind, must be investigated. In this paper, we study the effects of these parameters on L-band SAR data collected with the UAVSAR instrument over experimental oilspills. The relative look direction is found to have a larger effect on the slick detectability than the incidence angle, and the detectability is better in the downwind direction compared to upwind. The features showing the best slick detectability in the conditions investigated here are the VV intensity, HV intensity, the geometric intensity and the polarization difference. The latter feature shows low dependency on imaging geometry.

A flow of key information links marine spatial planning (MSP) and oilspill risk analysis (OSRA), two distinct processes needed to achieve true sustainable management of coastal and marine areas. OSRA informs MSP on areas of high risk to oilspills allowing a redefinition of planning objectives and the relocation of activities to increase the ecosystem's overall utility and resilience. Concomitantly, MSP continuously generates a large amount of data that is vital to OSRA. The Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) mapping system emerges as an operational tool to implement the MSP-OSRA link. Given the high level of commonalities between ESI and MSP data (both in biophysical and human dimensions), ESI tools (both paper maps and dynamic GIS-based product) are easily developed to further inform MSP and oilspill risk management. Finally, several other benefits from implementing the MSP-OSRA link are highlighted.

Contingency plans are essential in guiding the response to marine oilspills. However, they are written before the pollution event occurs so must contain some degree of assumption and prediction and hence may be unsuitable for a real incident when it occurs. The use of Bayesian networks in ecology, environmental management, oilspill contingency planning and post-incident analysis is reviewed and analysed to establish their suitability for use as real-time environmental decision support systems during an oilspill response. It is demonstrated that Bayesian networks are appropriate for facilitating the re-assessment and re-validation of contingency plans following pollutant release, thus helping ensure that the optimum response strategy is adopted. This can minimise the possibility of sub-optimal response strategies causing additional environmental and socioeconomic damage beyond the original pollution event.

We synthesize impediments for evaluating effects to seabirds from open ocean hydrocarbon releases. Effects on seabirds from ship discharges, spills, and well blowouts often are poorly detected and monitored far from land. Regulatory regimes for ocean spills can result in monitoring efforts that are not entirely transparent. We illustrate how interdisciplinary technologies address deficits that hamper individual or population level assessments for seabirds, and we demonstrate where emerging technologies might be engaged to bridge gaps in oilspill monitoring. Although acute mortality from direct oil exposure poses the greatest risk to seabirds, other hazards from light-attraction, flaring, collisions, chronic pollution, and hydrocarbon inhalation around oil infrastructure also may induce bird mortality in the deep ocean.

During the last years, the increasing pollution occurrence and the alarming deterioration of the environmental health conditions of the sea, lead to the need of global monitoring capabilities, namely for marine environment management in terms of oilspill detection and indication of the suspected polluter. The sensitivity of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to the different phenomena on the sea, especially for oilspill and vessel detection, makes it a key instrument for global pollution monitoring. The SAR performances in maritime pollution monitoring are being operationally explored by a set of service providers on behalf of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), which has launched in 2007 the CleanSeaNet (CSN) project - a pan-European satellite based oil monitoring service. EDISOFT, which is from the beginning a service provider for CSN, is continuously investing in R&D activities that will ultimately lead to better algorithms and better performance on oilspill detection from SAR imagery. This strategy is being pursued through EDISOFT participation in the FP7 EC Sea-U project and in the Automatic OilSpill Detection (AOSD) ESA project. The Sea-U project has the aim to improve the current state of oilspill detection algorithms, through the informative content maximization obtained with data fusion, the exploitation of different type of data/ sensors and the development of advanced image processing, segmentation and classification techniques. The AOSD project is closely related to the operational segment, because it is focused on the automation of the oilspill detection processing chain, integrating auxiliary data, like wind information, together with image and geometry analysis techniques. The synergy between these different objectives (R&D versus operational) allowed EDISOFT to develop oilspill detection software, that combines the operational automatic aspect, obtained through dedicated integration of the processing chain in the existing open source NEST

Assessments of the effects of oilspill that occurred on April 7, 2005 in Mombasa indicate that mangrove ecosystem was damaged. The total area was approximately 234 ha, spreading for about 7.5km long. Mangroves forests at Ras Hodi and Mkupe jetty were heavily oiled, prop roots with up to 2 meters band of oil. Observed changes on the leaves of the affected trees were increased; defoliation, spots, perforations, yellowing, twisting and fading. These effects do not necessarily translate to autom...

Full Text Available The Deepwater Horizon blowout, which occurred on April 20, 2010, resulted in an unprecedented oilspill. Despite a complex effort to cap the well, oil and gas spewed from the site until July 15, 2010. Although a large proportion of the hydrocarbons was depleted via natural processes and human intervention, a substantial portion of the oil remained unaccounted for and impacted multiple ecosystems throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The depth, duration and magnitude of this spill were unique, raising many questions and concerns regarding the fate of the hydrocarbons released. One major question was whether or not microbial communities would be capable of metabolizing the hydrocarbons, and if so, by what mechanisms and to what extent? In this review, we summarize the microbial response to the oilspill as described by studies performed during the past four years, providing an overview of the different responses associated with the water column, surface waters, deep-sea sediments, and coastal sands/sediments. Collectively, these studies provide evidence that the microbial response to the Deepwater Horizon oilspill was rapid and robust, displaying common attenuation mechanisms optimized for low molecular weight aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. In contrast, the lack of evidence for the attenuation of more recalcitrant hydrocarbon components suggests that future work should focus on both the environmental impact and metabolic fate of recalcitrant compounds, such as oxygenated oil components.

Due to changes in the drilling industry, oilspills are impacting large expanses of coastlines, thereby increasing the potential for people to come in contact with oilspill chemicals. The objective of this manuscript was to evaluate the health risk to children who potentially contact beach sands impacted by oilspill chemicals from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. To identify chemicals of concern, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) monitoring data collected during and immediately after the spill were evaluated. This dataset was supplemented with measurements from beach sands and tar balls collected five years after the spill. Of interest is that metals in the sediments were observed at similar levels between the two sampling periods; some differences were observed for metals levels in tar balls. Although PAHs were not observed five years later, there is evidence of weathered-oil oxidative by-products. Comparing chemical concentration data to baseline soil risk levels, three metals (As, Ba, and V) and four PAHs (benzo[a]pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and dibenz[a,h]anthracene) were found to exceed guideline levels prompting a risk assessment. For acute or sub-chronic exposures, hazard quotients, computed by estimating average expected contact behavior, showed no adverse potential health effects. For cancer, computations using 95% upper confidence limits for contaminant concentrations showed extremely low increased risk in the 10(-6) range for oral and dermal exposure from arsenic in sediments and from dermal exposure from benzo[a]pyrene and benz[a]anthracene in weathered oil. Overall, results suggest that health risks are extremely low, given the limitations of available data. Limitations of this study are associated with the lack of toxicological data for dispersants and oil-spill degradation products. We also recommend studies to collect quantitative information about children's beach play habits, which are necessary to more

Full Text Available Due to changes in the drilling industry, oilspills are impacting large expanses of coastlines, thereby increasing the potential for people to come in contact with oilspill chemicals. The objective of this manuscript was to evaluate the health risk to children who potentially contact beach sands impacted by oilspill chemicals from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. To identify chemicals of concern, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s monitoring data collected during and immediately after the spill were evaluated. This dataset was supplemented with measurements from beach sands and tar balls collected five years after the spill. Of interest is that metals in the sediments were observed at similar levels between the two sampling periods; some differences were observed for metals levels in tar balls. Although PAHs were not observed five years later, there is evidence of weathered-oil oxidative by-products. Comparing chemical concentration data to baseline soil risk levels, three metals (As, Ba, and V and four PAHs (benzo[a]pyrene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and dibenz[a,h]anthracene were found to exceed guideline levels prompting a risk assessment. For acute or sub-chronic exposures, hazard quotients, computed by estimating average expected contact behavior, showed no adverse potential health effects. For cancer, computations using 95% upper confidence limits for contaminant concentrations showed extremely low increased risk in the 10−6 range for oral and dermal exposure from arsenic in sediments and from dermal exposure from benzo[a]pyrene and benz[a]anthracene in weathered oil. Overall, results suggest that health risks are extremely low, given the limitations of available data. Limitations of this study are associated with the lack of toxicological data for dispersants and oil-spill degradation products. We also recommend studies to collect quantitative information about children’s beach play habits, which are

The Hebei Spirit oilspill (HSOS) on December 7, 2007 was the worst oilspill recorded in Korea, with the release of approximately 10,900 tons of crude oil and 375 km of coastline polluted along the west coast of Korea. Cleanup operation was conducted by official and contract responders as well as volunteers for massive oil containment and removal of heavy accumulations of stranded oil. Together with the oil cleanup, a long-term environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the HSOS was initiated based on the Marine Environmental Management Act, which covers oil contamination in a multimedia environment, toxic effects on organisms, and ecosystem injury. This review summarizes the long-term monitoring results of HSOS EIA focused on (1) pollution status of seawater, sediment, and bivalves, (2) ecotoxicological effects, and (3) ecosystem recovery. Overall, concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons in the environment indicated that their concentrations were well down to at or near background or pre-spill contamination levels at most sites after 1 year. The potential toxic effects of residual oils in sediments have decreased to background levels in most coastal areas of Taean. The entire ecosystem in the most affected area of the Taean coasts appear to be considerably, but not fully, recovered at present, namely after 8 years of the HSOS. The presence of lingering oil and elevated contamination levels at several sites still require continuous long-term monitoring.

In order to detect the early impact of the Hebei Spirit oilspill on the shallow subtidal macrozoobenthic communities, macrobenthic fauna were collected seasonally for 3 years. The alkylated PAHs concentrations within sediments near Mallipo beach remained as high as 129 ng g(-)(1) DW one month after the oilspill, but the concentration decreased below the background level thereafter. The number of species and density decreased in 4 months compared to those before the oilspill. An opportunistic polychaete, Prionospio paradisea, occurred as a dominant species at subtidal area near Mallipo beach in 10 months after the oilspill. Any mass mortality of amphipods and any clear dominance of opportunistic species were not detected except for the stations near Mallipo and Hagampo beaches. The macrobenthic communities at the shallow subtidal stations seemed to have a relatively stable faunal composition, even not fully recovered, in 3 years after the Hebei Spirit oilspill.

Today the health of ocean is in danger as it was never before mainly due to man-made pollutions. Operational activities show regular occurrence of accidental and deliberate oilspill in European waters. Since the areas covered by oilspills are usually large, satellite remote sensing particularly Synthetic Aperture Radar represents an effective option for operational oilspill detection. This paper describes the development of a fully automated approach for oilspill detection from SAR. Total of 41 feature parameters extracted from each segmented dark spot for oilspill and 'look-alike' classification and ranked according to their importance. The classification algorithm is based on a two-stage processing that combines classification tree analysis and fuzzy logic. An initial evaluation of this methodology on a large dataset has been carried out and degree of agreement between results from proposed algorithm and human analyst was estimated between 85% and 93% respectively for ENVISAT and RADARSAT.

Full Text Available The Deepwater Horizon oilspill triggered a complex cascade of microbial responses that reshaped the dynamics of heterotrophic carbon degradation and the turnover of dissolved organic carbon (DOC in oil contaminated waters. Our results from 21-day laboratory incubations in rotating glass bottles (roller bottles demonstrate that microbial dynamics and carbon flux in oil-contaminated surface water sampled near the spill site two weeks after the onset of the blowout were greatly affected by activities of microbes associated with macroscopic oil aggregates. Roller bottles with oil-amended water showed rapid formation of oil aggregates that were similar in size and appearance compared to oil aggregates observed in surface waters near the spill site. Oil aggregates that formed in roller bottles were densely colonized by heterotrophic bacteria, exhibiting high rates of enzymatic activity (lipase hydrolysis indicative of oil degradation. Ambient waters surrounding aggregates also showed enhanced microbial activities not directly associated with primary oil-degradation (β-glucosidase; peptidase, as well as a twofold increase in DOC. Concurrent changes in fluorescence properties of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM suggest an increase in oil-derived, aromatic hydrocarbons in the DOC pool. Thus our data indicate that oil aggregates mediate, by two distinct mechanisms, the transfer of hydrocarbons to the deep sea: a microbially-derived flux of oil-derived DOC from sinking oil aggregates into the ambient water column, and rapid sedimentation of the oil aggregates themselves, serving as vehicles for oily particulate matter as well as oil aggregate-associated microbial communities.

Extraction of oil and gas from unconventional sources, such as shale, has dramatically increased over the past ten years, raising the potential for spills or releases of chemicals, waste materials, and oil and gas. We analyzed spill data associated with unconventional wells from Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota and Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2014, where we defined unconventional wells as horizontally drilled into an unconventional formation. We identified materials spilled by state and for each material we summarized frequency, volumes and spill rates. We evaluated the environmental risk of spills by calculating distance to the nearest stream and compared these distances to existing setback regulations. Finally, we summarized relative importance to drinking water in watersheds where spills occurred. Across all four states, we identified 21,300 unconventional wells and 6622 reported spills. The number of horizontal well bores increased sharply beginning in the late 2000s; spill rates also increased for all states except PA where the rate initially increased, reached a maximum in 2009 and then decreased. Wastewater, crude oil, drilling waste, and hydraulic fracturing fluid were the materials most often spilled; spilled volumes of these materials largely ranged from 100 to 10,000 L. Across all states, the average distance of spills to a stream was highest in New Mexico (1379 m), followed by Colorado (747 m), North Dakota (598 m) and then Pennsylvania (268 m), and 7.0, 13.3, and 20.4% of spills occurred within existing surface water setback regulations of 30.5, 61.0, and 91.4 m, respectively. Pennsylvania spills occurred in watersheds with a higher relative importance to drinking water than the other three states. Results from this study can inform risk assessments by providing improved input parameters on volume and rates of materials spilled, and guide regulations and the management policy of spills.

In December 2007, the Hebei Spirit oilspill occurred on the west coast of South Korea. Association between crude oil exposure and the levels of urinary oxidative stress biomarkers was reported among the local residents, 1.5years after the accident. The aim of this study was to follow-up possible longer-term effects of the oilspill among the residents near the oilspill. Six years after the accident, urinary oxidative stress biomarkers of the residents were associated with surrogates of oil exposure. The target subjects were divided into two groups based on the distance of their residence to the spill site, i.e., those near the spill site ('Near' group, n=476), and those far from the spill ('Far' group, n=152). A questionnaire was administered by trained interviewers or self-reporting, and demographic information and other parameters of the participants, such as socioeconomic status, smoking and drinking behaviors, disease history, and duration of clean-up activities after the spill, were collected. The participants' levels of 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in 12 h urine samples were measured as indicators of oxidative DNA damage and lipid peroxidation, respectively. A general linear model was used for statistical analysis. Urinary MDA and 8-OHdG levels measured from 'Near' group, i.e., geometric mean of 2.19μmol/g creatinine, and 5.41μg/g creatinine, respectively, were higher than those of 'Far' group. Especially, urinary 8-OHdG levels in the 'Near' group were significantly higher than those of 'Far' after adjusting relevant covariates. In addition, the duration of clean-up activities showed a significant association with both urinary 8-OHdG and MDA levels. Even 6years after the oilspill, positive associations between oxidative stress biomarkers and surrogates of oil exposure were evident. While the present study design lacks biomarkers of exposure, the results of this study suggest that the consequences of oil pollution may last

Symbiotic associations can be disrupted by disturbance or by changing environmental conditions. Endophytes are fungal and bacterial symbionts of plants that can affect performance. As in more widely known symbioses, acute or chronic stressor exposure might trigger disassociation of endophytes from host plants. We tested this hypothesis by examining the effects of oil exposure following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oilspill on endophyte diversity and abundance in Spartina alterniflora - the foundational plant in northern Gulf coast salt marshes affected by the spill. We compared bacterial and fungal endophytes isolated from plants in reference areas to isolates from plants collected in areas with residual oil that has persisted for more than three years after the DWH spill. DNA sequence-based estimates showed that oil exposure shifted endophyte diversity and community structure. Plants from oiled areas exhibited near total loss of leaf fungal endophytes. Root fungal endophytes exhibited a more modest decline and little change was observed in endophytic bacterial diversity or abundance, though a shift towards hydrocarbon metabolizers was found in plants from oiled sites. These results show that plant-endophyte symbioses can be disrupted by stressor exposure, and indicate that symbiont community disassembly in marsh plants is an enduring outcome of the DWH spill.

Full Text Available Symbiotic associations can be disrupted by disturbance or by changing environmental conditions. Endophytes are fungal and bacterial symbionts of plants that can affect performance. As in more widely known symbioses, acute or chronic stressor exposure might trigger disassociation of endophytes from host plants. We tested this hypothesis by examining the effects of oil exposure following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH oilspill on endophyte diversity and abundance in Spartina alterniflora - the foundational plant in northern Gulf coast salt marshes affected by the spill. We compared bacterial and fungal endophytes isolated from plants in reference areas to isolates from plants collected in areas with residual oil that has persisted for more than three years after the DWH spill. DNA sequence-based estimates showed that oil exposure shifted endophyte diversity and community structure. Plants from oiled areas exhibited near total loss of leaf fungal endophytes. Root fungal endophytes exhibited a more modest decline and little change was observed in endophytic bacterial diversity or abundance, though a shift towards hydrocarbon metabolizers was found in plants from oiled sites. These results show that plant-endophyte symbioses can be disrupted by stressor exposure, and indicate that symbiont community disassembly in marsh plants is an enduring outcome of the DWH spill.

Halomonas species are recognized for producing exopolysaccharides (EPS) exhibiting amphiphilic properties that allow these macromolecules to interface with hydrophobic substrates, such as hydrocarbons. There remains a paucity of knowledge, however, on the potential of Halomonas EPS to influence the biodegradation of hydrocarbons. In this study, the well-characterized amphiphilic EPS produced by Halomonas species strain TG39 was shown to effectively increase the solubilization of aromatic hydrocarbons and enhance their biodegradation by an indigenous microbial community from oil-contaminated surface waters collected during the active phase of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. Three Halomonas strains were isolated from the Deepwater Horizon site, all of which produced EPS with excellent emulsifying qualities and shared high (97-100%) 16S rRNA sequence identity with strain TG39 and other EPS-producing Halomonas strains. Analysis of pyrosequence data from surface water samples collected during the spill revealed several distinct Halomonas phylotypes, of which some shared a high sequence identity (≥97%) to strain TG39 and the Gulf spill isolates. Other bacterial groups comprising members with well-characterized EPS-producing qualities, such as Alteromonas, Colwellia and Pseudoalteromonas, were also found enriched in surface waters, suggesting that the total pool of EPS in the Gulf during the spill may have been supplemented by these organisms. Roller bottle incubations with one of the Halomonas isolates from the Deepwater Horizon spill site demonstrated its ability to effectively produce oil aggregates and emulsify the oil. The enrichment of EPS-producing bacteria during the spill coupled with their capacity to produce amphiphilic EPS is likely to have contributed to the ultimate removal of the oil and to the formation of oil aggregates, which were a dominant feature observed in contaminated surface waters.

Full Text Available Halomonas species are recognized for producing exopolysaccharides (EPS exhibiting amphiphilic properties that allow these macromolecules to interface with hydrophobic substrates, such as hydrocarbons. There remains a paucity of knowledge, however, on the potential of Halomonas EPS to influence the biodegradation of hydrocarbons. In this study, the well-characterized amphiphilic EPS produced by Halomonas species strain TG39 was shown to effectively increase the solubilization of aromatic hydrocarbons and enhance their biodegradation by an indigenous microbial community from oil-contaminated surface waters collected during the active phase of the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. Three Halomonas strains were isolated from the Deepwater Horizon site, all of which produced EPS with excellent emulsifying qualities and shared high (97-100% 16S rRNA sequence identity with strain TG39 and other EPS-producing Halomonas strains. Analysis of pyrosequence data from surface water samples collected during the spill revealed several distinct Halomonas phylotypes, of which some shared a high sequence identity (≥97% to strain TG39 and the Gulf spill isolates. Other bacterial groups comprising members with well-characterized EPS-producing qualities, such as Alteromonas, Colwellia and Pseudoalteromonas, were also found enriched in surface waters, suggesting that the total pool of EPS in the Gulf during the spill may have been supplemented by these organisms. Roller bottle incubations with one of the Halomonas isolates from the Deepwater Horizon spill site demonstrated its ability to effectively produce oil aggregates and emulsify the oil. The enrichment of EPS-producing bacteria during the spill coupled with their capacity to produce amphiphilic EPS is likely to have contributed to the ultimate removal of the oil and to the formation of oil aggregates, which were a dominant feature observed in contaminated surface waters.

The Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico between April and July 2010 demonstrated the importance of synoptic oil-spill monitoring in coastal environments via remote-sensing methods. This study focuses on terrestrial oil-spill detection and thickness estimation based on hyperspectral images acquired along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. We use AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer) imaging spectrometer data collected over Bay Jimmy and Wilkinson Bay within Barataria Bay, Louisiana, USA during September 2010. We also employ field-based observations of the degree of oil accumulation along the coastline, as well as in situ measurements from the literature. As part of our proposed spectroscopic approach, we operate on atmospherically- and geometrically-corrected hyperspectral AVIRIS data to extract image-derived endmembers via Minimum Noise Fraction transform, Pixel Purity Index-generation, and n-dimensional visualization. Extracted endmembers are then used as input to endmember-mapping algorithms to yield fractional-abundance images and crisp classification images. We also employ Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) for oil detection and mapping in order to enable the number and types of endmembers to vary on a per-pixel basis, in contast to simple Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA). MESMA thus better allows accounting for spectral variabiltiy of oil (e.g., due to varying oil thicknesses, states of degradation, and the presence of different oil types, etc.) and other materials, including soils and salt marsh vegetation of varying types, which may or may not be affected by the oilspill. A decision-tree approach is also utilized for comparison. Classification results do indicate that MESMA provides advantageous capabilities for mapping several oil-thickness classes for affected vegetation and soils along the Gulf of Mexico coastline, relative to the conventional approaches tested. Oil thickness-mapping results from MESMA

Oil biodegradation by native bacteria is one of the most important natural processes that can attenuate the environmental impacts of marine oilspills. However, very few numerical models of oilspill fate and transport include biodegradation kinetics of spilledoil. Furthermore, in models where biodegradation is included amongst the oil transformation processes simulated, it is mostly represented as a first order decay process neglecting the effect of several important parameters that can limit biodegradation rate, such as oil composition and oil droplets-water interface. To this end, the open source numerical model MEDSKIL-II, which simulates oilspill fate and transport in the marine environment, has been modified to include biodegradation kinetics of oil droplets dispersed in the water column. MEDSLIK-II predicts the transport and weathering of oilspills following a Lagrangian approach for the solution of the advection-diffusion equation. Transport is governed by the 3D sea currents and wave field provided by ocean circulation models. In addition to advective and diffusive displacements, the model simulates several physical and chemical processes that transform the oil (evaporation, emulsification, dispersion in the water column, adhesion to coast). The fate algorithms employed in MEDSLIK-II consider the oil as a uniform substance whose properties change as the slick weathers, an approach that can lead to reduced accuracy, especially in the estimation of oil evaporation and biodegradation. Therefore MEDSLIK-II has been modified by adopting the "pseudo-component" approach for simulating weathering processes. Spilledoil is modelled as a relatively small number of discrete, non-interacting components (pseudo-components). Chemicals in the oil mixture are grouped by physical-chemical properties and the resulting pseudo-component behaves as if it were a single substance with characteristics typical of the chemical group. The fate (evaporation, dispersion

Oilspills are a global concern due to their environmental and economical impact. various commercial systems have been developed to control these spills, including the use of fibers as sorbents. This research investigates the use of various vegetable fibers, namely mixed leaves residues, mixed sawdust, sisal (Agave sisalana), coir fiber (Cocos nucifera), sponge-gourd (Luffa cylindrica) and silk-floss as sorbent materials of crude oil. Sorption tests with crude oil were conducted in deionized and marine water media, with and without agitation. Water uptake by the fibers was investigated by tests in dry conditions and distillation of the impregnated sorbent. The silk-floss fiber showed a very high degree of hydrophobicity and oil sorption capacity of approximately 85 g oil/g sorbent (in 24 hours). Specific gravity measurements and buoyancy tests were also used to evaluate the suitability of these fibers for the intended application. (author)

A highly hydrophobic and highly oleophilic sponge was synthesized by simple vapor-phase deposition followed by polymerization of polypyrrole followed by modification with palmitic acid. The prepared sponge shows high absorption capacity in the field of separation and removal of different oilspills from water surface and was able to emulsify oil/water mixtures. The sponge can be compressed repeatedly without collapsing. Therefore, absorbed oils can be readily collected by simple mechanical squeezing of the sponge. The prepared hydrophobic sponge can collect oil from water in both static and turbulent conditions. The proposed method is simple and low cost for the manufacture of highly oleophilic and highly hydrophobic sponges, which can be successfully used for effective oil-spill cleanup and water filtration.

Full Text Available This paper investigates the development of a model, called CranSLIK, to predict the transport and transformations of a point mass oilspill via a stochastic approach. Initially the various effects on destination are considered and key parameters are chosen which are expected to dominate the displacement. The variables considered are: wind velocity, surface water velocity, spill size, and spill age. For a point mass oilspill, it is found that the centre of mass can be determined by the wind and current data only, and the spill size and age can then be used to reconstruct the surface of the spill. These variables are sampled and simulations are performed using an open-source Lagrangian approach-based code, MEDSLIK II. Regression modelling is applied to create two sets of polynomials: one for the centre of mass, and one for the spill size. Simulations performed for a real oilspill case show that a minimum of approximately 80% of the oil is captured by CranSLIK. Finally, Monte Carlo simulation is implemented to allow for consideration of the most likely destination for the oilspill, when the distributions for the oceanographic conditions are known.

The controversial form in which the oil industry is run has once more caused a huge disaster--this one affecting the Galician coastal environment and economy. Oil-spill clean-up operations have been managed in Europe with some success but with considerable economic, environmental and social costs. The oil industry often avoids fully or even partially compensating those affected. The lack of both political will and political power has let the culprit (the oil industry) off the hook. This paper considers the spill of the Prestige to assess whether the balance of power between affected people and the oil industry can be changed. The paper examines the growing awareness of environmental issues among ordinary people in Spain, through the massive involvement of volunteers concerned with the damage done to the environment and to the livelihoods of fishing communities in Galicia. To understand these growing public concerns and the strength of opinion, the paper examines the details of the decisions taken by the central Spanish and local governments and the way these have informed the clean-up operations, the character of the oil companies involved and the feeling of impotence in the face of such disasters. The conclusion here is that the operations of the oil industry should be tightly regulated through EU legislation, and that this can come about as a result of organised political pressure from those affected by the oilspill, from the mass of volunteers, as well as from public opinion at large.

It is estimated that 4.9 million liters of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. Oilspill may be as huge as of 8 million barrels (The Persian Gulf oilspill of 1991). Oil-water separation processes using polymeric or inorganic membranes have been proposed as effective and cost competitive technologies but in present the commercial use of membrane in treatment of spilledoil is currently limited by their low efficiency as well as high capital and operating cost. Indian hair-market is a billion-dollar industry yearly exporting thousands of tones of thick and dark hairs. Hairs contain keratin, a family of fibrous structural proteins been proved to adsorb oils. Laboratory results conclude that one gram of human hair can selectively adsorb about 15.5301 grams of crude oil over water, following Frendlich's isotherm. We seek hair mats made up of hairs of size ≤5 inches, costing 37/ton from selected parts of Indian hair market. With a known adsorbing efficiency of 95% towards crude oil, an estimated desorption efficiency of 70% oil worth 0.8M per year can be regained in crude form from U.S. waters only. To ensure solid waste management of hairs, hair mats left with 30% of adsorbed oil can be utilized in the cultivation of oyster mushrooms, a 20-34/kg crop that grows best in 20-25°C ,80-90% relative humidity and oily conditions. This will reduce the growing period of crop ensuring yearly profit of $6.06M in U.S. only engaging variety of stakeholders over borders. Results thus obtained in this study present an economic, safer and sustainable technique to minimize oil loss due to oilspill in waters further ensuring a low labor-low cost technique of waste management that enhances the growth of an in-demand crop. Keywords: OilSpill, Human Hair Mats, Adsorb, Oyster Mushrooms

In the context of oilspill cleaning by autonomous vehicles in dynamic and uncertain environments, this paper presents a multi-resolution algorithm that seamlessly integrates the concepts of local navigation and global navigation based on the sensory information; the objective here is to enable adaptive decision making and online replanning of vehicle paths. The proposed algorithm provides a complete coverage of the search area for clean-up of the oilspills and does not suffer from the problem of having local minima, which is commonly encountered in potential-field-based methods. The efficacy of the algorithm is tested on a high-fidelity player/stage simulator for oilspill cleaning in a harbour, where the underlying oil weathering process is modelled as 2D random-walk particle tracking. A preliminary version of this paper was presented by X. Jin and A. Ray as 'Coverage Control of Autonomous Vehicles for OilSpill Cleaning in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments', Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Washington, DC, June 2013, pp. 2600-2605.

On April 20, 2010, a catastrophic eruption of methane caused the Deepwater Horizon exploratory drill rig drilling the Macondo Well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) to explode. The Deepwater Horizon oilspill was unprecendeted for several reasons: the volume of oil released; the spill duration; the well depth; the distance from the shore-line (77 km or about 50 miles); the type of oil (light crude); and the injection of dispersant directly at the wellhead. This study clearly demonstrated that there was a profound and significant response by certain members of the in situ microbial community in the deep-sea in the Gulf of Mexico. In particular putative hydrocarbon degrading Bacteria appeared to bloom in response to the Deepwater Horizon oilspill, even though the temperature at these depths is never >5 C. As the plume aged the shifts in the microbial community on a temporal scale suggested that different, yet metabolically important members of the community were able to respond to a myriad of plume constituents, e.g. shifting from propane/ethane to alkanes and finally to methane. Thus, the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in the plume by Bacteria was a highly significant process in the natural attenuation of many compounds released during the Deepwater Horizon oilspill.

Current marine oilspill detection and monitoring methods using high-resolution remote sensing imagery are quite limited. This study presented a new bottom-up and top-down visual saliency model. We used Landsat 8, GF-1, MAMS, HJ-1 oilspill imagery as dataset. A simplified, graph-based visual saliency model was used to extract bottom-up saliency. It could identify the regions with high visual saliency object in the ocean. A spectral similarity match model was used to obtain top-down saliency. It could distinguish oil regions and exclude the other salient interference by spectrums. The regions of interest containing oilspills were integrated using these complementary saliency detection steps. Then, the genetic neural network was used to complete the image classification. These steps increased the speed of analysis. For the test dataset, the average running time of the entire process to detect regions of interest was 204.56 s. During image segmentation, the oilspill was extracted using a genetic neural network. The classification results showed that the method had a low false-alarm rate (high accuracy of 91.42%) and was able to increase the speed of the detection process (fast runtime of 19.88 s). The test image dataset was composed of different types of features over large areas in complicated imaging conditions. The proposed model was proved to be robust in complex sea conditions.

Full Text Available Natural crude-oil seepages, together with the oil released into seawater as a consequence of oil exploration/production/transportation activities, and operational discharges from tankers (i.e., oil dumped during cleaning actions represent the main sources of sea oil pollution. Satellite remote sensing can be a useful tool for the management of such types of marine hazards, namely oilspills, mainly owing to the synoptic view and the good trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution, depending on the specific platform/sensor system used. In this paper, an innovative satellite-based technique for oilspill detection, based on the general robust satellite technique (RST approach, is presented. It exploits the multi-temporal analysis of data acquired in the visible channels of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS on board the Aqua satellite in order to automatically and quickly detect the presence of oilspills on the sea surface, with an attempt to minimize “false detections” caused by spurious effects associated with, for instance, cloud edges, sun/satellite geometries, sea currents, etc. The oilspill event that occurred in June 2007 off the south coast of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea has been considered as a test case. The resulting data, the reliability of which has been evaluated by both carrying out a confutation analysis and comparing them with those provided by the application of another independent MODIS-based method, showcase the potential of RST in identifying the presence of oil with a high level of accuracy.

Full Text Available Soil microarthropods influence vital ecosystem processes such as decomposition, microbial spore dispersal and nutrient mineralization. Based on evidence that these micro species thrive best in moisture rich environment, this study was carried out in the rainy season. With all other physiochemical parameters relatively constant, responses of these soil microarthropods to three varying concentrations of crude oilspills within the same environment was viewed. A total of 314 soil microarthropods were collected in the crude oilspilled areas over 3 months. While the control site recorded high indices of biodiversity and species richness, the disturbed sites recorded low values with the highest species population size in the site with the lowest spill and vice-versa. Basically, results show that the crustaceans were the most sensitive species, The acarina were the most resistant and dominant while the collembolans were the most resilient groups of soil microarthropods to varying concentrations of the crude oilspills. However, the perturbation also influenced microbial populations as the control site had the highest aerobic viable count while the site with the highest spill had the lowest count.

Full Text Available In this paper, we present a comparison between several algorithms for oilspill classifications using fully and compact polarimetric SAR images. Oilspill is considered as one of the most significant sources of marine pollution. As a major difficulty of SAR-based oilspill detection algorithms is the classification between mineral and biogenic oil, we focus on quantitatively analyzing and comparing fully and compact polarimetric satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR modes to detect hydrocarbon slicks over the sea surface, discriminating them from weak-damping surfactants, such as biogenic slicks. The experiment was conducted on quad-pol SAR data acquired during the Norwegian oil-on-water experiment in 2011. A universal procedure was used to extract the features from quad-, dual- and compact polarimetric SAR modes to rank different polarimetric SAR modes and common supervised classifiers. Among all the dual- and compact polarimetric SAR modes, the π/2 mode has the best performance. The best supervised classifiers vary and depended on whether sufficient polarimetric information can be obtained in each polarimetric mode. We also analyzed the influence of the number of polarimetric parameters considered as inputs for the supervised classifiers, onto the detection/discrimination performance. We discovered that a feature set with four features is sufficient for most polarimetric feature-based oilspill classifications. Moreover, dimension reduction algorithms, including principle component analysis (PCA and the local linear embedding (LLE algorithm, were employed to learn low dimensional and distinctive information from quad-polarimetric SAR features. The performance of the new feature sets has comparable performance in oilspill classification.

Toxicity of oil and diesel fuel to freshwater biota may be increased by use of oilspill cleaning agents. - Toxicity and temporal changes in toxicity of freshwater-marsh-microcosms containing South Louisiana Crude (SLC) or diesel fuel and treated with a cleaner or dispersant, were investigated using Chironomus tentans, Daphnia pulex, and Oryzias latipes. Bioassays used microcosm water (for D. pulex and O. latipes) or soil slurry (for C. tentans) taken 1,7, 31, and 186 days after treatment. SLC was less toxic than diesel, chemical additives enhanced oil toxicity, the dispersant was more toxic than the cleaner, and toxicities were greatly reduced by day 186. Toxicities were higher in the bioassay with the benthic species than in those with the two water-column species. A separate experiment showed that C. tentans' sensitivity was intermediate to that of Tubifex tubifex and Hyallela azteca. Freshwater organisms, especially benthic invertebrates, thus appear seriously effected by oil under the worst-case-scenario of our microcosms. Moreover, the cleaner and dispersant tested were poor response options under those conditions.

To assess the impacts of two oilspill remediation techniques on fish metabolism, change in aerobic and anaerobic enzyme activities in juvenile Australian Bass, Macquaria novemaculeata, was examined. Changes in cytochrome C oxidase (CCO) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activities were investigated following exposure to the crude oil water accommodated fraction (WAF) and chemically dispersed crude oil WAF. There was a significant stimulation in CCO activity in the gills and livers of fish exposed to the WAF of Bass Strait crude oil and chemically dispersed crude oil, compared to the control treatment. In addition, LDH activity was significantly stimulated in the liver of fish exposed to dispersed crude oil WAF, compared to the crude oil WAF. Fish exposed to the dispersed crude oil WAF treatment had significantly higher oxygen consumption, as measured by oxygen depletion in a sealed chamber, than fish exposed to the crude oil WAF and control treatments.

The growths of oil and gas exploration and production activities have increased environmental problems, such as oil spillage and the resulting pollution. The study of the methods for cleaning up oilspills is a critical issue to protect the environment. Various techniques are available to contain oilspills, but they are typically time consuming, energy inefficient and create secondary pollution. The use of a sorbent, such as a nanofibre sorbent, is a technique for controlling oilspills because of its good physical and oil sorption properties. This review discusses about the application of nanofibre sorbent for oil removal from water and its current developments. With their unique physical and mechanical properties coupled with their very high surface area and small pore sizes, nanofibre sorbents are alternative materials for cleaning up oilspills.

Marcia McNutt reflects on the role of the US Geological Survey (USGS) team following the Deepwater Horizon oilspill. Secretary Salazar asked Marcia McNutt to lead the Flow Rate Technical Group, a team charged by National Incident Commander Adm. Thad Allen with improving estimates of the oil discharge rate from the Macondo well as quickly as possible. Given the unprecedented